Update Time! (With Birds)
I managed to get a lot accomplished in the last week, so I have lots to report and many pictures to share.
First off, the wall is up and the aviary is now fully enclosed.
I also added some hanging vines in front of the inner door to hopefully deter birds trying to fly out over my head.
Next, I worked on preparing the space for the arrival of the birds. I added hanging platforms that I plan to use as feeding stations, waterers at various heights and a ton of toys.
I will be offering a couple of different types of pellets in hanging feeders, as well as various other foods in different parts of the aviary.
On the left is a blend of TOPS Small, Harrison's HP Superfine and Mazuri Small Bird pellets. Middle is Roddybush crumbles and Lafeber parakeet pellets. On the right is a mix of Higgins Intune Natural, Zupreem Fruitblend Small, and Tropical Carnival Parakeet pellets.
Yes, I know. I have way too many different kinds of pellets. It's a problem, but I am working on it.
The top tray is Goldenfeast Australian blend, middle tray has Nature's Salad, bottom tray has a ABBA 2100 parakeet treat mix.
It might be over-kill, but I am making sure that all the birds can locate the feeding stations, so I have also scattered small bowls and trays all over the place. I'll be slowly replacing the seed trays with other options, like sprouted seeds, fresh veggies, and chop, once the birds are settled in and familiar with where they can look for yummy food.
At this point, the aviary is pretty much ready for birds. I couldn't think of anything else that needed to be done before the birds were let free. The first inhabitants will be these super adorable button quail. They are peaceful ground-dwelling birds that are commonly kept in aviaries to clean up spilled seed and add visual interest to the lower half of the aviary. They get along well with other peaceful birds and can sometimes be tamed with enough patience. However, they do startle easily and they are not suitable in aviaries with larger or more aggressive birds, especially parrots. They can actually fly rather well, although they do not roost at night and generally spend all their time at ground level.
In addition to the quail, I will also be housing four male Lady Gouldian finches.
I moved the quail and finch cage into the aviary a few days prior to release to allow them to acclimate to their new surroundings.
After all preparations were complete, I released the quail!
And they totally refused to leave the cage. I could practically hear them thinking "Nope ... that is clearly a trap. No way, lady. Not gonna trick me so easily."
After about five minutes of anxiously watching the quail slowly circle around their cage, ignoring the wide open doors, I shrugged my shoulders and moved on to the finch release.
This time, I got immediate interest. Jasper, my yellow-backed finch, hopped to the front and tilted his head back and forth, scoping out the room. I grabbed my phone and was scrambling to take a video when three out of four finches burst from the cage simultaneously and started zooming around the open aviary like tiny, brightly colored missiles. They landed in three different spots, scattered around the aviary. Then took off again, zoomed around and landed/crashed in new spots.
I'm not sure who was more surprised, me or the finches. They were out!
It took a while for the finches to figure out how to land properly. Many of their initial "flights" were incredibly scary to watch, because they were flying full tilt and clearly didn't know how to stop. They would just zoomed about until they hit into wire, the floor, or just happened to end up close to a branch. And when one of them took flight, that would startle the others so they would also fly in a random direction. Eventually they started to settle down or maybe they were simply too tired to keep zooming.
Meanwhile, the button quail calmly sauntered out of their cage and started scoping out the aviary.
Here is Sterling, my silver finch, coming for a closer look at one of the silver button quails.
And here you can see the button quail poofing up her wings to look "big and scary" so the finch won't eat her. Sterling decided that he didn't want to mess with such an impressive woman and so he left.
I will be waiting a few days before introducing my parakeets. I want to give the finches and quail time to adjust to their new level of freedom and also let the finch figure out the whole "flying and then not flying" thing first.
More pictures soon!
