Outdoor Aviary

Molly       

          We have an Outdoor Aviary now, but for many many years I never had one, now I will not be without one. It is one of those things that you never miss till you experience it. I highly recommend it for people who would like to Free Fly their birds! It gives them a huge advantage over birds that live only indoors. Our birds do not sleep outside and because we live far north the winters are long and cold, but still. From May till November I can say we leave our birds outside few hours almost every day and in the winter if there is a nice sunny day we put them out for even 30 minutes. There is few reasons why I like outdoor aviaries, one is that your birds get used to being outside, used to the wind, the clouds, the sun, the rain, other birds, insect etc. All those little things that we tend to many times even miss can have big affect on our parrot when we let him lose and he might spook, leaving us wandering "what the heck spooked him" well, maybe it was just the cloud he never saw before! I fly my birds basically every day in the yard (we live on a farm, I dont personally recommend a city back yard) and that's where the aviary is, so they are quite used to seeing it already, we also have horses and dogs outside and our birds are used to them because they see them a lot and our dogs and cats, heck we even leave all of them together with our birds in there, it is also a dog kennel and a cat kennel ;-) Nothing wrong with that, but remember our dogs are very well trained and believe it or not, our cats are too. You have to make your own decision if you trust your dogs and cats being together with your birds, I feel obligated to tell you "do not do it", but it can be done :)

Kaja and Mitsy

The other reason I like aviaries is because it gives your birds a chance to get used to the weather. Our birds fly in temperatures around freezing if its sunny in the winter and are fine with it, but this is only because we let them to get conditioned to it. If you take your bird outside when its 0C / 32F to fly from your nice toasty warm house and he isn't used to it, then he probably will not enjoy it all that much and it might affect your training because it will not be a positive experience for him. 

          Easy and economical way to set up an Aviary is to purchase a chain link dog run, they are usually around 10 x 12 feet or so and you can pick them up second hand usually for around 200 dollars. Only make sure you get one with good quality wire, some cheaper versions have rather thin wire and if you have a Macaw he will snip it easily with his beak. One thing you might have to build is a roof. I put chain link wire on top of  the side panels as a ceiling. It is also a good idea to cover some of the ceiling to make a roof which will give your bird hiding place from a strong sun or a rain. You can use any sort of plywood or sheet metal panels or even a plastic tarp. This is just an easy way to set up an aviary that can be easily taken down in case you move one day. There is many different ways to build one, they can look very sharp and be more of a permanent version if you wish.  

Molly and Kaja outside

Kaja with Dogs