Danny. Won't. Stop. Crying.

Believe me, I am well aware of my reactions and behavior to his, so this isn't a me problem. He doesn't do anything for himself. He sits in or on his cage, and cries at every inconvenience. He doesn't explore. He doesn't play with toys. He doesn't even use his beak to shovel past the first layer of food in his bowl or foraging toys. I had to freaking teach this bird how to forage!! He doesn't know how to be a bird or do anything himself. I am honestly getting ticked off. He doesn't even try! He expects everything handed to him and I have no idea what happened but my bird doesn't know how to be a bird. It's ridiculous. /rantover

Would it be possible to try teaching him to do more for himself? If you didn't want to go for full blown clicker training, you could use luring instead. For example holding a treat in your hand so he has to reach to get it, then holding it a little further away so he has to take a step to get it, then increasing the distance and the location so he has to walk farther, climb something, and/or fly to get it. That would help expand his comfort zone to more places.

The thing is, I do that. It's slowly getting there, but I think I just get more tired that he never had a chance to learn how to be what he is. It's just the sound that gets me. It's so godawful. I'd rather he scream honestly. Because screaming is at least natural for a conure. And he makes it when he feels like he can't do something, which is about everything. He's incredibly food motivated and intelligent, so he learns tasks fast, but he has 0 confidence is the issue. He climbs everywhere he can and only flies if I make him or he gets spooked. If I put something just out of climbing range, he won't make the jump. He'll sit there and cry instead of try.

He might be playing you. If he's figured out that he can get something he wants by making that sound, then he's gonna make that sound. What he wants might be anything from getting you to do something for him to just getting some attention from you (even if it's negative attention like "shut up you stupid bird"). So try not to respond when he makes that sound, and do respond when he makes a sound that you like or does something that you like.

Like I said, I'm hyper aware of my actions and reactions to him. He gets nothing, not even a glance at that. It honestly doesn't work. He thinks I can't hear him.

If the activity is intrinsically rewarding to him then it won't matter what you do. Can you figure out what he's getting out of it? Like does he maybe just enjoy the sound of his own voice. If he has a sound that you like better, maybe you can encourage him to use that instead of the whiny crying sound.

See that's what I'm thinking. He's so vocally talented and speaks very well. He can make little coos and trills and I engage him when he uses his words. When he wants attention, it's either crying or my name (Eeranie). He has the ability to be so vocally impressive so I'm assuming he likes the cry.

Oh I just thought of something. Jaid will call when he makes that sound, so I feel like he's encouraging it.

Yes, he's getting an attention reward from Jaid, and it might be sort of a private language that they've developed. I'm not sure what you can do about that, other than trying to laugh at it and learn to like it. Is it possible that this is actually a variation of a sound that Danny learned from Jaid?

P.S. you can always make funny pictures about the situation as a form of art therapy. For no particular reason, I'm thinking of Jaid and his lemonade stand.