The Lovebirds Inside the Aviary

This is Home Sweet Home! We managed to finish the outdoor aviary just in time before the rains came and we transferred the birds in their new home. It is comforting to know that we now have a good house for our lovebirds. They can now fly better at a longer distance because of the much wider space. Since it is now the rainy season here, we enclosed the entire wall of the aviary except for a two-feet open space at the bottom, with a clear plastic material to protect the birds from inclement weather. By using a clear plastic material on the walls, it allows us to see the birds inside and monitor their activities even if it's raining outside. They all seem to enjoy their new home now. They like climbing on the walls and flying from one branch to the next. We placed a yellow plastic chain-link rope near the suspended cage and they just love swinging in it so we're thinking of putting more of these and some toys as well.  

I was contemplating on going to a wood working shop and order some nest boxes for the birds when I accidentally found out that they were actually selling these at the pet shop at SM mall at 145.00 pesos each. The experts say that the number of nest boxes in the aviary should be more than the number of pairs.  So I bought four of these wooden nest boxes, all of the same kind, even though we only have two pairs of lovebirds. This way, the birds can choose which nest box they like to use best. We hanged these nest boxes on the walls near the roof in the aviary and they're all at the same level to prevent any fighting. We also spaced them apart so they will not disturb each other when they start to breed. We cut up some green leaves and newspapers and put all of these in a container together with some pine needles so the birds can get their own nesting materials. So now it's just a wait-and-see time, we'll see what happens next.  

Escape Artist Lovebirds

One day, while my brother Joe was busy working on cutting the welded wire mesh for the aviary, he heard a bird chirping above his head. He didn't bother to look up thinking that it must be one of the house birds that are hanging out in our yard because we have plenty of them around the house. Then he heard another one and it sounded familiar but he still didn’t look up because he was bent on finishing what he was doing with the wire. Anyway, as soon as he finished cutting the wire, he looked up and saw two birds that looked exactly just like ours. He felt elated thinking that we might be able to catch these birds and we’ll add them to ones in the cage. Then a thought flashed in his mind that these could be our own birds who managed to get out of their cage. He looked at the cage and saw that it was empty! Those birds chirping on the guava tree are our own birds after all! How in the world did they manage to get out of their cage, that we do not know. We were so disappointed that we lost all of our three birds including the new comer. We could not eat and function well because we were always worrying and thinking about them. We all prayed that the birds will come back to us.

Do you believe in miracles?  Would you believe that after two days of being out in the wild that they did come back to us? All four of them too! Thanks to God for answering our prayers. What amazed us most is that they knew where their home is. They must have memorized their surroundings while they were living in the cage under the guava tree, I don’t know if they can do that. What matters most is that they came back home to us. They must have gone hungry during those two days that they were on the loose and they must have remembered that they can always find food in our place. So we put out some food inside their cage and one of them would go inside to eat, gingerly at first,  and then we would close the door behind it. Once the bird had its fill with the food, we would catch it and put it inside a smaller cage. Then we would do the same process all over again with the rest of the flock until we caught all four of them. Now they are all safe and sound and doing well.

This is the reason why we built a “safety area” in the aviary. This “safety area” serves as a holding pen for any bird that may accidentally escape from the main aviary and it also serves as our access area when servicing the birds. These birds are intelligent but at the same time, they are also known to be escape artists. So we have to make sure that we close the screen door behind us whenever we go inside this “safety area” to feed the birds. There is another screen door inside this “safety area” that leads to the main aviary. This door will only be opened once a week during a scheduled cleaning on the floor of the aviary. This will minimize our intrusion into the main aviary so as not to disturb the birds.  

The Making of the Outdoor Aviary

That is my brother Joe working on the suspended cage that is attached to the main aviary. This suspended cage is where we will feed and water the birds without having to go inside the main aviary. This will minimize our intrusion into the birds privacy so they will not be disturbed and hopefully, they will breed and multiply in this colony setting.  Underneath the suspended cage, there is a 4-inch space wherein we can slip a tray that will catch all the food that will drop from the feeding area. This should minimize the entry of unwanted creatures coming into the yard because they will not find any food scattered around the aviary.

We were debating at first weather to build a suspended cage for the birds or to build a full aviary. The advantage of a suspended aviary is that the birds will have less exposure to bacteria from the ground whereas with a full aviary, the birds could get down to the ground and may come in contact with harmful bacteria. Anyway, we chose to build an aviary in the end because we liked the idea of breeding the birds in a colony setting. We are not very particular in producing a specific mutation anyway because to us, they all look beautiful.

 In making the aviary, we used mostly 1 1/2- inch angle bars and flat GI sheets for the roof. We poured concrete on the floor to hold down the angle bars so the house will not be blown away during a storm. Then we enclosed the walls with a gauge # 16 welded wire mesh. Unlike the rabbitry and the chicken coop wherein we used a lot of scrap materials to cut down on the costs, we bought all new  materials for the aviary. The cost of materials was expensive but it was all worth it.

   

On Losing a Lovebird

The white enamel shallow dish inside the cage is what the birds use to take a bath. We fill it up with 1 inch of water and they like splashing in it.

 It got to be so hot one day inside the rabbitry that we thought the birds might die because of the heat. So we brought them outside and put their cage under the guava tree which is right next to where we were building the outdoor aviary. They seemed to have picked their own partners at this time and where one goes, the other would follow. We noticed one day that the partner of the lutino bird was not looking well. It was looking lethargic and its eyes were sleepy most of the time. It just kept to itself in one corner and its feathers were somewhat ruffled. So we thought it would be best to separate this bird from the rest so we could monitor it better. We kept the bird in a separate cage all by itself and tried to tempt it to eat but it just kept hunch over in a corner of the cage. Meanwhile, it's lutino partner kept on crying because of the separation and we felt sorry for both of them. Then the sick bird passed away quietly after two days and we had to bury it. That was a very sad day for all of us.

I thought about buying a new bird to replace the one that died. The lutino bird kept on crying out loud as if it was searching for its partner and it was really heart breaking. Then three days later, a bird of the same kind, looking exactly like the one that we lost, came into our yard. We were very much surprised of course because it seemed like the bird that we buried was resurrected from the dead. We thought that this bird must have gotten out of its own cage and have been out in the wild for sometime. This new comer must have heard the cry of the Lutino bird who was still pining for its lost partner. Anyway, we were able to catch this loose bird when it went inside the chicken run. I know that we should have quarantined the bird first before mixing it with the others but in our excitement, we didn't do it. Once we put the new bird inside the cage, we could not tell which is which! Well anyway, the lutino bird stopped crying and it seems that it has found a new partner in this new comer. We've been blessed with a new bird and we're very happy for that.

The Lovebirds in a Rabbit Cage

These are the four African Lovebirds that I bought from a pet shop along Magsaysay Avenue here in Baguio City, Philippines. When I first saw them, they were in two separate cages, two birds inside a cage. The sales lady told me that the two birds in the first cage are males while the other two in the next cage are females. One of the females is a Lutino with yellow feathers and that it costs more than the others. She said that I could get one male from the first cage and get another female from the other cage and pair them together. Being a newbie, I really could not tell the age of the birds and the saleslady said she doesn't know it either. Since I could not really make up my mind which ones to pick to make a pair, so I bought the whole lot instead. They all looked so beautiful anyway. I thought that it might be better if I bought the whole four of them so they can get to choose their own partner. I paid 400.00 pesos for each bird except for the Lutino which costs me 450.00 pesos. The saleslady would not budge with the price no matter how hard I tried to haggle with her but she was very helpful. I paid a total of 1,650.00 pesos for the four lovebirds. I also bought a piece of cuttle bone, a bag of sunflower seeds and a bag of small grains. She said that they prefer eating the sunflower seeds over the grains. So I brought the birds home together with their feed supply for a week. 

I didn't buy a bird cage from the pet shop because I didn't like what they were selling, they were too small I think. I planned on using a rabbit cage instead to house the birds when I got home.   I had four newly constructed all-wire rabbit cages inside the rabbitry at that time that has not been used yet. Initially, my intention in going to the pet shop was to buy some rabbits. I was getting impatient with waiting for the rabbits that I ordered from a neighbor but they were not weaned from their mother yet. So anyway, instead of coming home with some rabbits, I came home with these lovely bird. The size of the rabbit cage is 2.5 feet wide by 3 feet long by 18 inches high. It is recommended that the bird's cage should be at least 3 feet long and the width should be at least 2 feet while the height should be at least two feet. Well I had to make do with what I have which is actually much better than what they were selling at the pet shop. This cage is to be their home until such time that we could build them a house of their own.