Cold weather advice needed for an outdoor aviary

[gregzilla]

We have an outdoor aviary (as shown in the gallery) in San Diego California. We designed it with a flight and heated/insulated shed that we keep at about 70 degrees F. The weather here rarely gets into the 30s at night, but during the winter can be in the 40s at night (I know how terrible that must sound to many of you). Last night it hit 51 F and I went outside to check on the birds. Some were in the heated shed, some were in nesting boxes and some were on perches in the flight. This morning I found a female cut throat dead and I am thinking it succombed to the cold. The heated shed is accessible through two openings approximately 5 inches by 14 inches. Some birds go in and out constantly while some never seem to go in (like the cut throats). When we built this aviary, the local bird store "expert" said that the birds would be smart enough to go to the warm shed when it got cold. I am not so sure. I know some people enclose their flights and heat the whole thing during the winter, but I would prefer not to do that. Any advice on getting these birds to use the heated shed on cold days?

[Asym]

Hi gregzilla- I am in Sacramento. To winterize my outdoor aviary I wrap the sides of the aviary (that are mesh) in a clear plastic that I secure with wire ties (the plastic is plyable, ie rollable and foldable) to keep the wind out. Other than that I just have a heat lamp on in the most secure corner (I call it the shower stall because there are three sides of plywood). I use the red reptile heat lamp bulb and leave it on 24 hours/day. I have birds that refuse to go anywhere near the 'sheltered' area and sleep on zip ties in rain/shine/hot/cold. This is my second winter.

You could always try buying a heat lamp and putting outside your heated room near some roosting perches.

[Asym]

I also posted some pics of my aviary in the gallery.. Don't know why I never looked there before! Gregzilla your aviary looks so slick and professional!

[poohbear]

The unheated section of my birdroom pictured is fully clad in the winter months..even so the temperature can go down to freezing.(last year down to -5) Most of my gouldians insist on roosting in there even though they have access to the other warmer half.
The only sure fire method I know to get birds into a heated section is to supply enough light for them to feed later in that part...and remove all high perches in the cold part...birds will always roost as high as possible in an aviary.

[gregzilla]

Update to my aviary situation...

I have found, as poohbear noted, that many of the birds will roost as high as possible, preferring a high cold roost to a nice warm low one. I have ended up taking the roosting branches down during the night and most of the birds will then go into the heated shed. The green singers seem to prefer to cold and I have to catch them and put then in at night. I also leave the lights on in the shed during sun down and only turn them off after it gets dark. This may help a bit too. Most of the birds seem to be getting the hang of it.

[RockinCanary]

California gets cold? I thought only Canada got cold!

[Chrismurdoch3]

best of luck hopefully your birds will stay in the heated part during the cold months.

[ac12]

he he Warren
It is all relative.
For me Northern Calif is COLD at night and in the winter.
...but then I grew up in Hawaii.

[RockinCanary]

Hawaii!!! Must have been great to grow up there!!!