Aviary debate

[h2olilee]

My husband and I have been having a debate and so I thought I'd get some input from everyone. We are currently building a house that will have a good sized sunroom attached (24' x 18'). We want to have a mixed flock of finches in the sunroom, but he wants them to be loose and free in the entire room. I want to designate one corner to be the aviary part which would be caged off (about 8' x 8' corner for the entire height). The room will be all glass with an 8' covered overhang off the house. There will also be a raised pond approximately 12' x 9' x 2' deep with a waterfall and fish. I will have lots of plants. It will be climate controlled all year. Stained concrete floor. I think it's a great "idea" to have them free, but I think from a practical stand point it wouldn't work too well. Here's my concerns about having them loose: They would probably love bathing in the waterfall (it would be shallow) but I would be worried they would drown in the pond. I would have to be very careful not to have any poisonous plants (which I already have a bunch of). My Senegal parrot and cat would never be able to go in the sunroom. It would be hard to clean since they will poop everywhere. I wouldn't want them to crash into the glass.
Any thoughts/ideas/concerns about going either way?
Thanks for any input!

[monotwine]

I tend to agree with your style of having the birds in a large enclosure to be admired, and enjoyed by all and any that come to your sunroom. (not all appreciate bird poop)
As you mention if the birds are all free you are limited by their freedom and the mess can be something else.
In their own enclosure they will be safe, secure and their husbandry for you will be easier.
Would you as a family be happy to go through a double safety door every time you go to the sun room? Disaster would be a flock that gets into your house and goes to visit the cat.

As a compromise perhaps their enclosure can be fitted with a slider enterance which can be opened to allow them access to the sunroom if you please. Most of the time they will go back to their enclosure, after some time, where the food is.

[wellingtoncdm]

Dfcauley has done what you are thinking about. If you search her topics there are pictures.

[L in Ontario]

Dfcauley has done what you are thinking about. If you search her topics there are pictures.

I was going to say that too, Charlie. That Donna has built her sunroom into a free flight aviary and even doubled the size of it. There certainly are pros and cons - you simply need to make a list and see if the cons weigh more heavily for you. What works for others may (or may not) work for your hubby and you. It would be fantastic for our finches to get that much room to fly in and they would get used to the glass boundries and there would rarely be any pond-deaths (as out in the wild), but yes, you parrot and cat should never go in there and there would be some mess on the walls. I think Donna has newspaper on the most heavily traffic areas of her birdroom / sunroom / aviary.

Good luck with your decision - it will be fun either way!

[Sally]

How about a compromise? With 24x18 to work with, you could split it in half and have a 12x18 aviary and a 12x18 family space. You could then keep the poisonous plants on the family side, finch-friendly plants in the aviary. The pond could stay on the family side, much easier to keep clean and more accessible for family enjoyment, with a birdbath in the aviary. Ursula also has a sunroom aviary, I think it is about 12x12. Ursula has come up with some good ideas to keep her birds from hitting the glass, but Donna also has a lot of glass and has had no problem, they learn very quickly that there is a barrier there. Also, with only part of the sunroom being the aviary, any escapees would only escape into the rest of the sunroom, not the whole house. And, your cat and Senegal parrot could enjoy the family half of the sunroom.

[nelloyello11]

I WISH I was having this debate!! So jealous- I would love a sunroom aviary!

I think a divided room is the best option, so that you and your family and guests can get the most enjoyment out of the space. I think an open pond could be very dangerous for captive finches, who wouldn't be used to it. If you have a door into the sunroom, it also gives you a little extra security if anyone gets out of the aviary and into the sunroom.
For the glass, you can use a black marker to draw lines every few inches, and remove them gradually over time, giving them time to get used to the glass, until all the lines are gone. But this would be quite an undertaking for an aviary this large!
I hope you'll share pictures as you build!!

[Angeldov222]

yes, i wouldnt let your finches have freedom in the entire sunroom, i would have a specific area for them.............i would be worried that that they may escape, visit the cat, eat the wrong plants, drown etc etc........that would be no fun, only added stress for u and the birds.
Keep us posted

[Jasmin]

What a wonderful dillema you're having! I'd love to be in your shoes

If I were and I had to make a pros/cons list, on the cons list I would put "feathers" during molting season.

I only have 13 finches in 2 separate cages, and I consider them to be very clean and easy to maintain, but now that they are molting at very different rates, I'm finding the feathers to be a very mobile and annoying "debris". The poop stays where it lands, the seeds stay where they land, but the 100+ daily feathers get spread around the house with the tiniest little breeze in the room!

And they'd surely find their way into your morning coffee when you're enjoying your sunroom.

But then again, I'm sure with your Shephard and the cat, you're probably more tolerant than me in the fur/feather department!

Good luck with your project!

[Weew]

Here's my $.02

I went out on a limb and turned my Florida pool enclosure into a finch aviary. I decided to place a little trust in mother nature and assume the finches would be smart enough to avoid drowning in the pool. Three years later, the results have been astounding.

I think it's a great idea to give them freedom. It must be good for their little birdbrains to be able to fly free and soak up the sunshine. Chicks that are raised in these conditions grow up strong and healthy too.

I believe the pros far outweigh the cons. Here are some of the cons:
- In semi-wild conditions, finches are tireless breeders. If you don't want to be overrun by chicks, you'll have to keep on top of things.
- Poop. Small birds = small poop, but it can really add up underneath their favorite perches.
- Food mess. Finches are real slobs when it comes to table manners.
- Noise. I suppose finch chatter is a pleasant sound, but a gaggle of screaming fledglings at feeding time can get a bit annoying.

[h2olilee]

Another idea I'm thinking about is to have the one corner set up for the finches with their perches, food, water, nests, etc. but without the cage wall to separate them from the rest of the sunroom. Then maybe they will just mostly stay in that area and the mess would be more contained. Then they can still fly around the whole room if they want and return to their corner most of the time.

There won't be any doors to the outside, just one sliding glass door to the inside of the house with a beaded curtain that you can walk through covering the opening (supposedly birds won't fly through a beaded curtain), so hopefully I won't have any escapees into the house.

@Weew, do you mean that you have not had any drownings in your pool? I would still worry about that- esp. youngsters who are not that coordinated yet.

[debbie276]

I had a bird room in the basement and had hanging beads in the door way to keep any escapees out of the main part of the basement. It works really well and in the 6 or so years I had them down there I think only one or two zipped right through the beads. It really depends on the speed and panic of the bird.

[dfcauley]

The main thing I think people need to be aware of is the cleaning. Alot of people think it would be less. It is less in terms of bowls, dishes , water tubes etc... but I spend about an hour per day in the aviary. Doesn't sound like much, but it is after you have worked all day. On the weekends I do my BIG cleaning . Floor, walls, nest, etc..... I sweep it during the week and shop vac it on the weekend along with mopping it.

I used cheap old towels under the perches. I flip them over one day and wash them the nest. I used to use newspaper, but wow.... that was alot of paper.
As far as the windows I have only had one death from that. It was from a new released bird and that was my fault. I didn't do it properly and he flew straight into the window. The birds learn their boundaries fast. They will sometimes "bump" into the window, but it doesn't hurt them.

I enter my sunroom from the house so no problems with escape. If they do it is only into a small sunroom. If you want to see your birds fly free you LOVE this and it is worth all the trouble. And as stated... there are many pros and cons. I have alot of breeding issues. But it is so fun to watch them in there and see their real personalities.

Good luck in whatever you decide!

[h2olilee]

What is the proper way to release a bird into an aviary to avoid window collision?

I was planning on putting up a raised baseboard in the finch corner and using sand as the substrate and then scooping poop out like you would a litter box. I do this in my chicken coop and it works really great. It keeps everything dry and is fairly easy to replace when needed.

[Jasmin]

Another idea I'm thinking about is to have the one corner set up for the finches with their perches, food, water, nests, etc. but without the cage wall to separate them from the rest of the sunroom. Then maybe they will just mostly stay in that area and the mess would be more contained. Then they can still fly around the whole room if they want and return to their corner most of the time.

This is a really good idea! Clean up would definetely be more contained and easier.

I don't know about other people's finches, but I have Gouldians and I find that they're pretty stationary...they fly "ocassionally" but for the better part of the day they just sit and sing, then eat, drink, and sit and sing some more.
I'm sure they'll venture into the rest of the sunroom once in a while, but I can picture Gouldians for the most part staying put close together on their favourite perches and just hanging chatting

[dfcauley]

What is the proper way to release a bird into an aviary to avoid window collision?
.

Well unfortunately I released this one at the steps as I went down into my aviary and it flew straight lined into the aviary about 22 feet across full blast. Now.... when I release one I have a huge cage that I keep in there with the door open. I put them into the cage and let them come out at their own time. I works every time!
The reason I keep the cage.... door open... is because I have heat lamps in there for the birds that want and need that little extra heat sometimes. They go in there and perch. Also I find that my waxbills (strawberry, goldbreast) LOVE to sit in there in their little groups.

Alsommm in my aviary my gouldians fly all day long. They don't sit..... they love to fly in circles around the aviary. I will try to make a little video!