FINCHforum

Hello all,

as I am new here I thought I would post some pics of my Avairy, other than what I posted in my topic on Chestnut Breasted singing. It is 6m x 3m, which converted is 20 feet by 10 feet. It has a sand floor and is set up like a part of the Australian bush with trees, grasses, rocks etc. The water tank feeds a float and valve which tops up the bottom dish of my 'waterfall' which is run by a solar powered pump. It is summer here now and I have had to cut back the trees and grass as they grow quickly!

I have got 4 Chestnuts, 8 Owls, 4 Gouldians and 2 Painted Firetails.

More pics.

OMGSH! Your aviary is GORGEOUS!! I love it! Am totally in awe. Oh how I wish I lived in a climate where I could make one as extravagant as that with all the live foliage... Possibly one day. You did a great job its beautiful.

Very nice! Are you in Australia?

wow, thanks for posting the photos.. Very inspirational. I would like to do something like that, and have wondered how it will work. Did you need to use any special barrier on the ground to keep critters out? Is it difficult to catch a finch in there for health examination? Oh and what grasses do you have in there? Do they eat the grass seeds?
Very lovely set up!

Stunning ..... absolutely wonderful. I would like to come and live in your aviary

I love those painted finches!! And your aviary is stunninly beautiful.
Those are some lucky birdies!!

Wow!!!! Wonderful!!

Dayna wrote:OMGSH! Your aviary is GORGEOUS!! I love it! Am totally in awe. Oh how I wish I lived in a climate where I could make one as extravagant as that with all the live foliage... Possibly one day. You did a great job its beautiful.

Thanks - I have had this type of avairy in my imagination since I used to breed birds with my mum many years ago. It has been a long time coming, and took me 6 Months to build, but it feels close to actually being in the bush (I live in a small town surrounded by typical Australian bush). The grasses I dug up from the side of roads etc.

managermania wrote:Very nice! Are you in Australia?

Yes - I just added that info to my profile. I am about 100km north of Sydney in NSW. The area in which I live in technically within the range that you will find Owls and Chestnuts, but I haven't seen any. I have found finches can be nomadic though, and Australia is so big there could be populations just up the road. I have seen 'Red Heads' locally.

Chichireeo wrote:wow, thanks for posting the photos.. Very inspirational. I would like to do something like that, and have wondered how it will work. Did you need to use any special barrier on the ground to keep critters out? Is it difficult to catch a finch in there for health examination? Oh and what grasses do you have in there? Do they eat the grass seeds?
Very lovely set up!

The wire extends into the ground, and it kept mice out for a year, but they have managed to find their way in. I did find a damaged bit of wire where they were getting in, but they still occasionally get in even after I blocked that spot. They possibly get in around the door, but they don't last long as I have covered baits inside and outside that they go straight for. I never find the bodies though, so goodness knows!

I have several types of grass that I got out of the surrounding bush and yes they definitely eat the seeds! I have also planted some of their seed to grow more grass that way. It took around 6 months before the grasses really got established and it looked bushy.

fantastic aviary-love the painted male. Mine setup is a similar size but I have had to leave out the grasses because of the problem with humidity. I have used all "bush" products though but kept a more open envirenment to deal with fungi etc. Are you up on the north coast?
I will post some pics of mine soon

Chichireeo wrote:wow, thanks for posting the photos.. Very inspirational. I would like to do something like that, and have wondered how it will work. Did you need to use any special barrier on the ground to keep critters out? Is it difficult to catch a finch in there for health examination? Oh and what grasses do you have in there? Do they eat the grass seeds?
Very lovely set up!

Oh yes, and they aren't easy to catch! Usually my wife stands down one end with a net and I'm down the other end with one, and we work as a team. All the birds have been very healthy, touch wood. I have also got 4 King Quail running around, and when they have young they are the hardest to catch. They are difficult to see sometimes and you really need to flush them out!

I had Zebras in the beginning but they were too aggressive with the other Finches despite the size of the avairy, but the picture below is still one of my favourites.

kenny66 wrote:fantastic aviary-love the painted male. Mine setup is a similar size but I have had to leave out the grasses because of the problem with humidity. I have used all "bush" products though but kept a more open envirenment to deal with fungi etc. Are you up on the north coast?
I will post some pics of mine soon

G'day! Yes, I would imagine being that far north in Queensland it would be humid. I'm roughly 100km north of Sydney, and for overseas readers I would be 15 to 20 Hours drive from northern Queensland at least.

With all the rain recently one of my trees started suffering from a fungus that I had to kill off. The weather here is ideal though so I am lucky. The biggest problem I had to deal with were Noisy Miner birds chasing them from one end of the avairy to the other. The solid plastic I wrapped around each end helped, plus I had to seal all gaps in the roof as the buggers were getting in there and chasing the finches on foot across the wire.

tumbi1 wrote:

kenny66 wrote:fantastic aviary-love the painted male. Mine setup is a similar size but I have had to leave out the grasses because of the problem with humidity. I have used all "bush" products though but kept a more open envirenment to deal with fungi etc. Are you up on the north coast?
I will post some pics of mine soon

G'day! Yes, I would imagine being that far north in Queensland it would be humid. I'm roughly 100km north of Sydney, and for overseas readers I would be 15 to 20 Hours drive from northern Queensland at least.

With all the rain recently one of my trees started suffering from a fungus that I had to kill off. The weather here is ideal though so I am lucky. The biggest problem I had to deal with were Noisy Miner birds chasing them from one end of the avairy to the other. The solid plastic I wrapped around each end helped, plus I had to seal all gaps in the roof as the buggers were getting in there and chasing the finches on foot across the wire.

Mate, I know the problem. I have bloody butcher birds working in teams of 3 and 4 stalking each end of the aviary to try and catch them. The noisy minors also try and get into the roof cavity which I have just enclosed. I fully boarded one side, partly to keep the predatory birds away, and partly to stop the wind tearing through the aviary during cyclones. A guy up on the atherton tablelands had had all the feathers stripped off some of his birds during the last cyclone. My breeding area is fully enclosed with only a front entry. The humidity presents some challenges but I find if I keep things fairly open I can get over most of this. One big issue is that you cant use sprouted seed here, unlike in Sydney., I lost some finches until I worked out it was the sprouts. The ambient overnight temperature does not get low enough to kill all the bugs in the sprouts, so it literally poisons them. Red Faced PF do great in the tropics and I have had some luck with the painteds. The jacarinis have been my great success storey. They are hard to breed but once you get the setup right they do OK. I am onto clutch 3 now. All the birds except the gouldians seem to take a lot of live food here, not sure why. I have been in Cairns for 6 years from central Sydney, so a big change. I do love tropical north Queensland though. I have ten pair of gouldians in full breeding mode at the moment and the Ruddies and Red Cheeked CBs have just gone down. I will post my pics soon. I hope to take them today