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Paradise for Daddy’s “little kids”

By Marc Sirkus

Five years ago I purchased 4 Lady Gouldian Finches. Once they were living in our home with my family I discovered that I just loved the sounds that they make, but especially I loved waking up to those sounds in the morning. So I went out and bought 5 more.....

A friend was also enchanted by my Gouldians so he went out and bought 9 of them too. However he found that cleaning up after them was too big a chore, so he gave his 9 to me. It took me 6 weeks to get his birds healthy and to feather up properly.

Now I had 18 birds without a proper cage to house them all.

Soooo…along came the idea of building an outdoor aviary since I live in Southern California where the weather is beautiful year round. We built the aviary in February when the outdoor temperatures are lovely, but still too cool to move the birds from inside. So I have patiently waited 4 months to be able to make that transition.

View of the area beside my home where I am going to build my outdoor aviary for my Lady Gouldian Finches.

I will be able to enjoy them from both outside and thru the window when I am inside of the house.

The overall area is 11 feet by 5 feet and the aviary will be 8 feet high. This large open flight area will contain a tree, perches, food and water, plus the breeding boxes and swings! My teenagers have already started referring to it as Paradise for the “little kids”!

With the help of a friend we built the aviary in 3 days. The construction was done with 2 x 4s and 2x2s, 1 roll of ½ inch screen wire which I am going to paint black, 3 sheets of outdoor sheeting, 3 sheets of exterior siding and 2 rolls of insulation.

The aviary is built on the existing concrete and will have timothy hay on the floor.

The enclosed area is totally insulated (walls and ceiling) and is heated by 2 heaters on timers and a red light is used as a night light should the birds get spooked during the night.

The placement of the opening when both the top and bottom doors are closed allows 80% of the ceiling heat to stay in their bedroom and keep my “little kids” warm. The 2 foot by 2 foot opening allows everybody to fly freely in and out of the warmed area. The opening contains a platform for food dishes and spray millet treats.

In the left photo above you can see the small opening that I left in the bottom framing of the outdoor portion of the flight so that the aviary could be hosed out when needed. This opening is 1 foot by 6 inches and is hinged and held closed by a latch to prevent any escapees.

In order to economize on space and not have to install a secondary anti-escape door, I installed a safety soft-screen inside the main entrance door. Whenever I open the main door the birds retreat to the upper perches while I slip thru the soft-screen.

I must tell you the truth, once I put all of them in the aviary, they were soooo happy, I could just tell. I could never put any of them back into a cage.....there is nothing as striking and beautiful as Lady Gouldians flying, singing and playing in an outdoor aviary.....they bring me a lot of satisfaction !!