How many finches in a aviary

[RATTIE]

We want to put finches in a 8' by 16' aviary and I am wondering how many can go in it. The calculator says 64-85 but that seems like a lot of birds for such a small space. I also need to know if they can stay outside year round here or if they will need a heated area for winter. I am in southern California in the high desert. It snows here a few days a year but the snow normally melts within a day. I am not sure what kinds we will be getting yet but we want peaceful ones.

[Sally]

The cage calculator works very well for cages, but not for aviaries. One of our members who has experience with aviaries gave this advice in a previous post:

For aviaries the general rule of thumb is 1 meter square (1.1960 yd squared) floor space per pair (height is irrelevent).

[debbie276]

The housing page in The Finch Information Center says: 3-4 square feet of space per pair. Your also going to have to take into consideration which species your housing as some are much more aggressive then others.
As far as the temperature they can tolerate again it will depend on which species your going to be handling. Having a heated area is probably going to be a good idea if the temperatures drop below 50F. My owls, forbes and gouldians play in the snow and can get into the heated birdhouse when they need heat.
good luck

[RATTIE]

Thanks .

[Nerien]

8'x16' is 128 square feet of space.

Divide that by the housing page's 3-4 square feet per pair, and you get the 64-85 birds recommended by the calculator (32-43 pairs). That's an awful lot of birds for the space. A 10x13' room is 130 square feet, about the same. Imagine 64-85 birds in your average smaller kitchen or bedroom-sized space.

To use the recommendations from previous posts from members with aviaries, as Sally quoted:

A square yard is 9 square feet (3 feet x 3 feet). Divide that into the 128 sqft and you get about 14 pairs. or 28 birds.

A square meter is about 1.2 sq yd (almost 11 square feet), so dividing that in gives you about 12 pairs, or 24 birds.

If your species are all passive, peaceful types, you could probably go towards the higher number. If any of them are pushy or aggressive, you will probably want to stay lower.

[FinchsRUS]

How does height play into this? I currently have a 30x30 cage with two finches and was thinking about building a 3 foot x 8 ft x 10 ft tall cage. According to those calculations, only between 4 and 5 birds should go in that space. It seems like I could have a few more than that. Doesn't it?

[wellingtoncdm]

The aviary sounds great. I have a huge one as well. What kind if birds are you planning on putting in there? Less birds to start is the way to go. As they breed the numbers go up fast.

[debbie276]

How does height play into this? I currently have a 30x30 cage with two finches and was thinking about building a 3 foot x 8 ft x 10 ft tall cage. According to those calculations, only between 4 and 5 birds should go in that space. It seems like I could have a few more than that. Doesn't it?

Height is not a consideration with these calculations.
Here is the Finch Information Center's page with the cage size calculator that explains why
http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/cage_s ... ulator.php

[Sally]

How does height play into this? I currently have a 30x30 cage with two finches and was thinking about building a 3 foot x 8 ft x 10 ft tall cage. According to those calculations, only between 4 and 5 birds should go in that space. It seems like I could have a few more than that. Doesn't it?

It depends on what species and sex bird you are planning to put in your aviary. I had an aviary that was similar size, and if I remember right, I had 10 or 12 compatible males in there without any problem. When you have breeding pairs, they need enough space to be able to establish their territory.

[RATTIE]

Thanks, the calculations did come out as 64-84 birds with the 3-4 feet per pair and that does seem like way to many. Why is the amount you can put in a cage different from the amount you can put in a aviary? We will be using this chart from the Finch Info Center to pick out peaceful species http://www.finchinfo.com/housing/compatible_species.php .

[Nerien]

Why is the amount you can put in a cage different from the amount you can put in a aviary?

Think about it like putting people in a house to live. In a little ranch house, say 1,000 square feet, you would expect 2-4 people to live (for example, a couple and maybe their kids). In a 2,000 square foot house, a nice pseudo-colonial or cape type, you could easily house 4, maybe 6, maybe 8 if they got along real well.

go up to a nice 3,000 square foot house, would you really want 12 people in there? 16 people living in a big 4, 000 square foot house?

Take a mansion, 10,000 square feet, would you expect 40 people to live happily together, even in something that big? Even tho technically everyone still gets the same amount of square footage that is "theirs", it just becomes too big a population to comfortably and happily share the home.

[Sally]

Great analogy, Nerien, thanks!

[Ursula]

8'x16' is 128 square feet of space.

Divide that by the housing page's 3-4 square feet per pair, and you get the 64-85 birds recommended by the calculator (32-43 pairs). That's an awful lot of birds for the space. A 10x13' room is 130 square feet, about the same. Imagine 64-85 birds in your average smaller kitchen or bedroom-sized space.

Maybe this was a miscalculation on somebody's part who wanted to translate the square meter formula into square feet? 1 meter = 3.2 feet. So it would by "about 3-4 feet squared" which would be about a square yard.

And I agree. My aviary is about 11 by 11 feet and I have about 30 birds (where 2 are quail and 2 are parrotlets in a separate cage). I am pretty much at capacity IMO and wouldn't want to add a lot more...

Think also: The more birds, the more droppings, the more you have to clean...

[darissa]

Debbie276....thank you for the link to the cage calculator. Amazing info available on there. I am new and overwhelmed a bit by all the topics and info on Finch Forum but so excited I found it. Very helpful once I learn to navigate on here.

[Sally]

darissa

Welcome to the forum! Yes, there is LOTS of information on this forum, and there is still more at the Finch Information Center, linked at left. Any time you have questions, just post them, and the members are always ready to help.