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.