FINCHforum

Hello everyone been reading the fourm for some time now but on ly signed up today, my names Paul im 33 and i live in the wirral mersyside in the UK, ive kept lovebirds and finch for a couple of years now and alwyas wanting an aviary i thought it time to move the finches outdoors. We had 3 bengalise and 3 zebras living in harmony but i wanted more birds with a hope to breeding them.

I spoted a suitable looking avairy on ebay it cost me £400 delivered and erected and arrived just over a week ago.

Its 10ft x 4ft and 6ft high, the flight is 6x4 with the nesting area 2x4, with a safe entrance to boththrough the tripple doors.

I immediatly set to work equiping it it with numerous nesting boxes and perches also stocking up on feeders/drinkers, bedding material, food and treats etc.

Ive installed a light on a timer to come on when it gets dark, this runs for 3 hours and switches of when solar powered fairy lights automatically switch on giving a gentle backlight all night long. ive also added a couple of clear plastic windows to allow light in through the day as well as adding a proper door lock and handle.

The avairy well be moved eventually to its final siting but for now its right by our patio door.

We have so far stocked up with, 21 zebra finch, 9 benagalise, 3 canaries and 4 button quail, i plan on getting couple more hen quails and hen bengalise to give a higher hen to cock ratio as well as getting at least one cock canary as all 3 of ours currently appear to be hens.
These have been bought form local petshops and breeders as well as a bird fair we visitied last night.

They have plenty of nesting boxes of varing types (over 30) and i still have some more to go in. I also bought a douuble breeder cage, which ive put to use with a couple ofo new finch that seem to have trouble flying for long periods, so ill let them rest up for a while then release them back in in to the aviary.

Anyway here are plenty of pics sorry for some of the quality (my first time using to manual focus on the camera).

Great aviary! That is perfect for the birds! I was just wondering about the plastic igloo on the bottom of the aviary...?

Welcome! That's a beautiful aviary! I like the storage area. Or can the birds get in the enclosed area as well? To get out of the cold or rain? or winter cold? Just wondering... why do you have lights come on at night after sun down? I like the idea of solar lights for soft lighting. You have a lot of birds in there! When they start breeding you're flight will runeth over!

I'll bet the igloo is for the button quail.

I thought about that but I didn't think they would fit! Maybe it's an extra-large igloo If it is for the quail, great idea! I think they will love their little tiny house!

Hi guys yes the igloo is for the quail and all 4 can fit in there with ease (not that they use it ).

The light i put in there to encourage them to roost rather than staying out all night like they were doing, so far its been working and ill start to have it on less and less in the end not haivng it on at all and using just the fairy lights. The light is also handy for myself so i can see what im doing.

The Nesting area is accesable from the flight via a hole near to the top, this also is able to be closed of with a movable flap. and obvoiusly this leaves a storage area/safety porch to get in and out safely. Im very happy with the aviary and am loving watching the birds.

Very nice aviary
best of luck

Very very nice

wow! thats a beautiful Aviary

Very cool and functional. The price is awesome. I don't know how they do it for 400. I built one myself about the same size and it cost me around $700 already.

Very nice aviary!!

However, if I may make a suggestion: I would be careful with putting too many button quail in it. They are not flock birds, in the wild they live in male/female pairs. Aggression will not be less just because you might have more females than males. If you have 2 pairs now, I'd keep it that way...
I am speaking from experience. My aviary is 11 by 11 feet and I started out with 2 pairs of button quail (in addition to my finches and budgies). They got along great because they were about the same young age when I got them, and they bonded into two pairs. I let both pairs hatch babies at about the same time, and as soon as the offspring got older I had to unfortunately give most of them away because there was too much chasing and fighting going on. I had one male that I could not find a place for so he stayed. Eventually one of the females died, and I had to actually separate the last female from the males because they chased her too much and plucked her feathers. She lived in a cage on the aviary floor so she wasn't lonely and could at least see the males, but they couldn't get to her. Her mate regularly slept right next to her outside the cage, they were still bonded. After she passed away I had the 3 males left, which I still have now. They are a happy bachelor trio and get along wonderfully. (No females = no reason for fighting anymore. )
I've heard about people keeping buttons in bigger groups, however I doubt that there is no aggression, at least at times.... Button quail are very aggressive birds towards each other, and especially towards the opposite sex.

Wonderful aviary and beautiful birds! Glad you decided to join the forum, as I'm sure you've already figured out that it is a wonderful place!

Thanks for the comments guys and i will have a rethink about the quail as there was a bit of bullying when i first put them together, but this has stopped now and they are getting on great and it would be a shame to ruin this, thanks for the heads up

Very nice!

Wow!!! Gorgeous aviary. You've got some lucky birds there!