On average, sun conures weigh around 110 g (4 oz) and are around 30 cm (12 in) long.The sexes are similar in plumage, although hens may be lighter and slenderer in body, having a shorter tail, with a smaller, rounder head and a smaller beak. Adults have a rich yellow crown, nape, mantle, lesser wing coverts, tips of the greater wing coverts, chest, and underwing coverts. The face and belly are orange with red around the ears. The base of the greater wing coverts, tertials, and base of the primaries are green, while the secondaries, tips of the primaries, and most of the primary coverts are dark blue. The tail is olive-green with a blue tip. From below, all the flight feathers are dark greyish. The bill is black. The legs and the bare eye ring are grey, but the latter often fades to white in captivity (so using amount of grey or white in the eye ring for determining "purity" of an individual can be misleading). It is easily confused with the closely related jandaya parakeet and sulphur-breasted parakeet, but the former has entirely green wing coverts, mantle, and vent, while the latter has green mottling to the mantle and less orange to the underparts. The sun conure is also superficially similar to the pale-billed golden parakeet.