FINCHforum

Hi!
Here is my new Avaiary, just re decorating it. Hade my bigger birds here before.

Its 2 x 2 x 2 meters.

What would you say is the maximum birds I could have here? I have filled upp the aviary with nestboxes (not showing in the pics) and the birds is moving around in diffrent regions. And no fights so far..

Right now I have
6 African Silverbills
4 Societys
2 pair Star Finch
1 pair Village Indigobirds
1 pair Red-throated Parrot Finch
1 pair Plum Headed Finch
2 pair Gouldians

I'm thinking off taking out the Gouldians and Societys but its works fine for now
(I'm sorry not the best light in the pics)

If there is no squabbling/quarreling going on - then they are fine. If they start fighting and bickering then you'll know you have too many in there.

The Finch Information Center - linked on the left side of your screen - has a Cage calculator:
http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/cage_s ... ulator.php

You might want to add some greenery or fake plants for them to hide in.

to me you have to many birds in there, in a aviary of those dimensions I would house at most 3 pairs of birds.

while that cage calculator is ok, I dont trust the numbers it gives you.
according to it, I need to purchse another 650 birds
it makes no allowance for breeding

mickp wrote:to me you have to many birds in there, in a aviary of those dimensions I would house at most 3 pairs of birds.

while that cage calculator is ok, I dont trust the numbers it gives you.
according to it, I need to purchse another 650 birds
it makes no allowance for breeding

You have a very good point there Mick!

PS - May I come bird-shopping with you?!?!

sure you can Liz, on the proviso that you pay for all the new birds

mickp wrote:to me you have to many birds in there, in a aviary of those dimensions I would house at most 3 pairs of birds.

while that cage calculator is ok, I dont trust the numbers it gives you.
according to it, I need to purchse another 650 birds
it makes no allowance for breeding

I agree with you, mick, the cage calculator is just that--for cages. Once you get into the larger flights or aviaries, the numbers get out of whack. And the whole point of an aviary is to give the birds more room to fly, to have their territory, etc. And a breeding aviary or flight has to have more room for each bird than say a grow-out flight for juveniles separated by sex.

Sally, perhaps there needs to be a warning stating what you just said. the warning could be set to appear whenever someone opens the calculator.

I also totally agree. The more space the better. I personally have never thought the calculator was good enough. It doesn't make any provisions at all for babies etc...

mickp wrote:Sally, perhaps there needs to be a warning stating what you just said. the warning could be set to appear whenever someone opens the calculator.

You're right, mick, I'll pass this info on and maybe we can get something added to that. I think the calculator works for the cages most of us use, so that would be OK. Flights and aviaries are a whole different situation.

Sally wrote:

mickp wrote:Sally, perhaps there needs to be a warning stating what you just said. the warning could be set to appear whenever someone opens the calculator.

You're right, mick, I'll pass this info on and maybe we can get something added to that. I think the calculator works for the cages most of us use, so that would be OK. Flights and aviaries are a whole different situation.

Maybe there should also be a warning that some species are more active than others? For example, I would never want to keep a European Goldfinch in a cage, mine is zipping around in the aviary like crazy, he seems to have a definite urge to fly. Some finches are just much calmer than others and I think you should consider that too when "calculating" space.

I think a lot of that info (how active species can be) would be in the finch info centre.
If it isnt maybe someone could write an article to send Hilary for inclusion in there.

Of course we needs to take account of the species we have in the aviary byt my species works fine together.

But an update, I've removed the gouldian and the Society.

Both the red-headed parrotfinch and one of the star Finches pair have eggs in the nest , two pair of Silverbills is bulding nest. Its only the Plum Headed Finch thats seams un intrested in nesting.. do any one have any tips? They folow eachother and work nice as a pair (I think) but do you have any tips on where they like to bild nest? Do not want to do anything wrong even if I know that it could take a year before finches nest in a new aviary.

All but the Red-headed parrotfinches have bin in cages before and its so nice so sitt by the aviary and watch them. And they are so fearless and go down to the bottom even if I'm in the aviary.
When in cages there were a littel more like popcorns (flying around everywere)

Mattias, Donna (dfcauley) has been successful with the Plum-heads in her aviary, you can read about it here:
http://www.finchforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=7764