FINCHforum

Hard to know where to put this...but hey!...it's housing!

I don't know about your part off the world but here in the UK the fascination with birds goes back a long way.Countrywide there have been public aviaries since Victorian times.Some are still maintained up to the present day.But many have disappeared due to maintenance costs,vandalism,and being a low priority for public spending.
Here in the middle of England in Nottinghamshire we're lucky to still have a couple to encourage youngsters into bird keeping.With our weather you won't come across many exotic species...mostly those able to adjust to the conditions year round.
In the mid 1800s an area of Nottingham was put aside for future generations and many acres declared a public park for perpetuity.It's now surrounded by dense housing.

The Arboretum.Nottingham City.

The Victorians were as keen as we are about birds and the aviaries here were opened in the late 1800s.
Before the days of multi media,in those days parks with their flower beds and the mandatory bandstand were extremely popular.





It's still a nice place to spend a Sunday afternoon and the aviaries as I write are being updated and modernized.There used to be some indoor space with humming birds and exotics...but they have unfortunately gone now.





All in a beautiful setting for the middle of a city.





The cannon captured from the Russians in the Crimea wars.



It was here I saw my first golden pheasant...and I now have a trio of my own.





Another aviary in a park near where I used to live used to suffer from vandalism.The council raised the funds to build a purpose built aviary that was attractive but could be locked up at night.













Long may they survive to encourage youngsters into our hobby.

Nice pictures
thanks for sharing

that really is wonderful! I wish we had public places like that here in New York. a great way to make people of all ages realize how special nature really is.

thanks for sharing, nice pictures.
lou

Really nice concept and the Pheasant is beautiful. Thanks for sharing and it's nice to hear from you again, Poohbear>

Very cool I really wish that people in Canada were more dedicated to birds.

What a wonderful thing to know and so enlightening! Great pics,old and new! Thanx for sharing.

Though some zoos and gardens have an aviary section, birds are not nearly as popular in the United States as in other parts of the world. Just look at the bird shows in Europe. We get excited if we have 100 finches at a bird show (and the average is much less than that), while in Europe, their finch entries will be 10 times that, if not more. Look at the availability of cages and supplies in Europe--we can only dream of such availability. And in Australia, what we call an aviary, they call a flight.

I brought up the idea of keeping finches in the conservatory at the Fort Worth Botanic Gardens, but that was not received well--the Gardens are more about preserving plants, and so the thought of the birds destroying or pooping on the plants was not appealing to them.

Thanks for sharing, poohbear! Not only are you lucky to have access to public aviaries, but what a lovely park you have there in Nottingham!