FINCHforum

Was reading a weekly magazine (cage&aviary birds) the other day,and recently there was a article and some letters about people having problems with predators after their birds,ie sparrowhark/buzzard etc,anyway one person wrote in that they had trouble with a sparrowhark until they put a stone statue of a owl ontop of the avairy,and that apparently now keeps the predators away!
Thought would share this tip for anyone who has/had problems with predators trying to get to their precious birds

I have a hard plastic, realistic looking one under the eaves of the boat house.... keeps the seagulls away ... but the starlings aren't phased in the least

Also have a live horned owl that makes the rounds... but only at night Fortunately I have so many fat morning doves around that the cooper hawks prefer them over my tiny finches

CandoAviary wrote:I have a hard plastic, realistic looking one under the eaves of the boat house.... keeps the seagulls away ... but the starlings aren't phased in the least

Also have a live horned owl that makes the rounds... but only at night Fortunately I have so many fat morning doves around that the cooper hawks prefer them over my tiny finches

I dont think anything scares starlings away,not even my cat's,they just sit there taunting them
Always help's to have some other food around for predators lol

Always help's to have some other food around for predators

I quess that's just the price the doves pay for all the free seed they can eat

I have my birds by my triple slider over looking the pool, even mocking birds and squirrels that climb the screen enclosure scare even my indoor birds Squirrels seem fearless and not effected by my dogs barking or coming close to them.the squirrels climb down within inches of the dogs which are on the inside of the enclosure and tease them.

Shadows from the vultures that fly over or large sandhill cranes that pass by twice a day while to and from their roosting area startle them and all the birds get real quiet. Once they pass the finches all start their chatter up again.

Hawks though are fearless, I have had them swope down near me and pick up lizards and even a small snake (thank goodness for that).

cindy wrote:.

Shadows from the vultures that fly over or large sandhill cranes that pass by twice a day while to and from their roosting area startle them and all the birds get real quiet. Once they pass the finches all start their chatter up again.

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It is amazing the inbuilt protection gene that birds have,even if they have never seen the type predator before,they know when it is bad and time to hide

Thanks for the tip, there no wonder that this idea is working the Eagle Owl hunts everything (sparrowhawk, buzzards etc and even other owls like the Barn owl).
A few years ago before I had my aviary my birds were in a smaller cages into the house, I used to put them sometimes in the sun,one time I left them be outside at the terrace and when I returned I was In shock I could not find my canary in his cage and suddenly I saw his head that was terrible!!!! few minutes later I saw who killed it, it was a Common kestrel . Since I have my aviary it never
happened again because the aviary is to big for the kestrel to try catch something!

We started to build an outdoor aviary before we really knew much about raising finches. We stopped mid construction when we realized we had not planned for weather, predators and such. I wish we could afford to build one correctly, so they can enjoy being outside, but we have numerous potential predators such as; neighborhood and feral cats, racoons, squirrels, hawks, owls, skunks, snakes, rats, etc. As you can tell, in Texas there's lots of critters. Not to mention, the bugs, bugs, bugs, such as fire ants (deadly to finches I presume), brown recluse spiders, wasps, bees, hornets, mud dopplers, etc. I am now too afraid to put the finches outside, even though they would love it. Except maybe during tornaod weather. WE get hail and high winds and thunderstorms galore.

Deborah - you should go scout out some of the aviaries built by Australians. They have similar problems and overcome them with ingenious invention.

Overhead predators you can deter with a good overhaning A-frame roof, crawling climbing digging type you can protect against with good solid foundations, a fine wire mesh and pugging any gaps. An electric wire setup around the perimeter of the aviary does wonders for cats and predators too.
For ants you can try a water filled moat.
All these do cost a bit more to install though.

I've seen some with realistic looking snakes on their aviaries too to keep away butcher birds for instance.