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Question for the folks with a large aviary...how do you capture a bird if necessary? I have a bronze mannikin that needs help. His leg band slipped down over his foot and he's having a tough time perching. I tried netting him but that just created pandemonium in the aviary. I had to quit before someone got hurt. My aviary is 12' long, 10' wide, 8.5' tall.

Shannylee wrote: Question for the folks with a large aviary...how do you capture a bird if necessary? I have a bronze mannikin that needs help. His leg band slipped down over his foot and he's having a tough time perching. I tried netting him but that just created pandemonium in the aviary. I had to quit before someone got hurt. My aviary is 12' long, 10' wide, 8.5' tall.

Hi there Sharon,

In an ideal world you would want a couple of std size avairy panels positioned inside the avairy at the far end with a door attached to this, basically it's a small avairy within the big avairy, all you then have to do is walk down the avairy and flush the bird into the small avairy and with a pull string simply pull the door shut job done

Alternatively the only thing you can do us use a proper bird catching net purchased from specialist bird centres etc,

Or you could look for a decent fishing tackle shop and buy a quality round pan landing net, you may possibly need 2-3 people in the avairy on the corners to flush the bird towards who ever has the net

Thanks Stuart! It was almost 100 degrees here today so all of us (me and the birds) were panting after about 15 minutes of trying to net him. I thought about waiting until he bedded down in one of the twine nesting pockets and trapping him in it but I'm not sure which one he went in.

I have three different net sizes myself. You didn't say if the aviary was a walk- in size or just a really large flight. If you don't have a bird specially store near you, a butterfly net with the longest sleeve part you can find should do. Or a fishing net with small openings. Just be careful that the netting material isn't capable or trapping thei feet/legs.

Shannylee
I can definitely relate! You idea of catching him at night is one I've used often. I go inside the aviary at night with a flashlight to see where the bird is roosting and it's easy to get him.

In my outdoor aviary I have added on a couple of sections to the first aviary I started with leaving door ways that I can close off. That makes it a smaller area to corral the bird into that I want to capture. Without that it would be impossible to catch any birds in the daytime for sure.

If you have a walkin size aviary you could possible hang something like a roll up bamboo shade that you could use to section off a part of your aviary. When not in use, you could roll it up out of the way.....just a thought. Good luck!!!

Shannylee wrote: Thanks Stuart! It was almost 100 degrees here today so all of us (me and the birds) were panting after about 15 minutes of trying to net him. I thought about waiting until he bedded down in one of the twine nesting pockets and trapping him in it but I'm not sure which one he went in.

Oh my days, 100 degrees, gosh

Yea I think yer best bet is to wait until dusk once that sun has dropped, for both yourself and the bird

Birds will fly toward light. If the other tips don't work, you could try this: in a darkened aviary, put a small cage in a corner, with a small light shining on it. If the small cage has food and water the bird will probably (eventually) go in.

Not so useful, though, in an aviary with a bunch of birds. You'll catch the wrong one, always, due to some perverse kind of law of nature.

Nets are difficult to use in an aviary with branches.

Catching a bird in the dark, with a small flashlight so you can spot the one you want, is the best. It causes the least amount of uproar for you, the bird you want, and other birds in the aviary.

I have a large aviary on one end of a garage with a tall ceiling. I had to put in a net ceiling so the top of the aviary was 8' from the ground. Otherwise once a bird got into the rafters almost no trick worked.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions. My aviary is a walk-in with lots of birds. It's 12' x 10' x 8'. Lots of branches so the net is difficult. I'll try spotting him with a flashlight after he roosts tonight. He's getting around ok so I'm pretty sure the band on his little foot is bothering me way more than it is him.

I am quite surprised by all the suggestions of catching the bird at night!
Is it just my birds that are totally freaked out if disturbed by night, flying around crazily with a very good chance of injuring themselves in the dark? And that can happen if they just spot torchlight or movements outside the aviary!
I'd never, ever, consider doing this.

To me the very obvious solution to catch just one bird in an aviary is using a trap cage. Any small cage with door at floor level will do.
Put the food inside and wait till the wanted bird enters - it should not take too long. This way you avoid disturbing the others.

'Dark' means so dark that you can't see, either. Use the flashlight as little as possible--just quick on / off so you can spot the bird. A few on / off's so you can get up next to the bird. In a very dark room, then, you can usually just reach out and pick it up.

Shannylee has an outdoor aviary, these never get totally dark at night.
Mine get just some natural light at night from outside through windows and that's already enough to let them fly around in panic if disturbed.

I, too, was concerned about the birds freaking out and flying around at night and the possibility of them flying into a branch or something and injuring themselves. I've decided to leave my little mannikin be for now. He is not distressed and he is getting around just fine. He slips a bit when he perches but rights himself quickly. It seems that he has been dealing with this band issue for a while. I just wish I would have realized the problem before I released him into the aviary.

Thank you all for your suggestions I know that I am way more worried about this little guy's foot than he is. He's busy fighting over the girls and couldn't care less about his somewhat handicapped foot.

A sick bird is usually easy to catch on the floor with a net. But if I need to catch a particular bird I usually close off the other sections of the aviary and then remove all the treats for a few hours. No fruit, no veggies no spray millet, Then I bait an 18" x18" home made cage-trap with all their favorites and then just wait for the right bird to drop in. The trap is centrally located where they can all see the goodies and it has three trap doors across the front. Two are wired together so they both drop at the same time which makes a rather large entrance. The trap is gravity sprung with a simple string release from a good distance away. The third smaller door is for my hand once I have the bird(s) I want in the trap. There's only one perch in the trap and the plywood floor has dowels around the outside edges which makes it easy to release unwanted birds by simply opening the floor while my "catch" is up on the perch. The trap has a carry handle on top so I can take the whole thing to the garage where I can control the lights and remove my catch to a hospital cage or a display/sales cage. This system cost practically nothing to build and works great for me - particularly if I have an occasional escapee trying to get back in. I use the trap mostly in early Spring when I'm trying to set up 14 pairs of Red Factor Canaries in their selective breeding apartments.

w.l. wrote: I am quite surprised by all the suggestions of catching the bird at night!
Is it just my birds that are totally freaked out if disturbed by night, flying around crazily with a very good chance of injuring themselves in the dark? And that can happen if they just spot torchlight or movements outside the aviary!
I'd never, ever, consider doing this.

To me the very obvious solution to catch just one bird in an aviary is using a trap cage. Any small cage with door at floor level will do.
Put the food inside and wait till the wanted bird enters - it should not take too long. This way you avoid disturbing the others.

Absolutely agree

can't understand when others seem to think it's perfectly OK to catch birds in the pitch black,

Yea admitingly it's easy to do this but clearly not thinking of the birds,

I've seen birds actually die in the hand of heart failure when this has been practiced thankfully not my birds,

There are loads of ways in catching and trapping birds in large avaires and just boils down to basic common sence,

it has already been mentioned on this thread about how to screen off one end or corner of the avairy for easy capture, it's not rocket science