Parrot Aviary Construction

Aviaries come in many shapes and sizes. Some are conventional, some are suspended and some are a combination of both. Some have frames made of wood, some have frames made of steel, some have frames made of aluminium and some don’t have a frame and are just made of wire. Whatever the case what do you do if you have never built aviaries before?

It might seem like a big project to get off of the ground and sure it can be but it is also a little exciting as well. Getting plans for aviaries when you first start can be hard but the best thing to do is visit as many breeders as possible and get your ideas from there. You quickly learn from others what has worked and what hasn’t. Why it has worked and why It hasn’t worked etc.

There are so many factors that come into play when designing an aviary. For instance position, size, ease of cleaning, ease of relocation, materials required, local weather, predators, security, species housed and the list goes on. If you haven’t got access to people whose aviaries you could visit for whatever reason e.g you live in a rural setting or you are just starting out then then hopefully this post will help. 

Whilst the following are not plans and might not be suitable for your area, hopefully the photos and captions are of some assistance. For those who build aviaries regularly hopefully these give you an idea or two for your next aviary build. It is hoped that in a blog post sometime in the future that I will be able to show more set-ups as they are built by various breeders.

The aviaries you see here are suspended aviaries that are designed as a permanent fixture. The aviaries measure 2 metres long x 90cm’s wide x 1.2 metres high. The airlock is 1.5 metres wide and the aviaries are 1.2 metres off the ground. At the time two banks were being made so below are a combination of photos from the building of both banks. They were built by the team at Perky Parrots (www.perkyparrots.com) on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia to house their Pyrrhura Conures.

The base and the rat wall are dug out. The rat wall which is is 600mm deep and 200mm above ground is designed to stop burrowing rodents.

A frame is built around it and the cement is pored for the walkway and rat wall.  The section under the aviaries is filled with a small layer of 5mm blue metal for now. It will not be concreted.

Once the concreting is complete it is left to dry and set.

Once the base and rat wall is dry more of the 5mm diameter blue metal is added whilst access is easy. The frame used to assist in the concreting is also removed.

Two exterior frames and 5 internal frames are welded so they can be placed on the slab. Here one of the external frames is stood up and placed in position. 

 

  
These 875mm long cross bars will then be welded into place between each internal frame to achieve the desired width.

Here you see the last of the cross bars being welded into place. 

Further welding takes place to put in the doors, the walkway, the front spacers and then the 12.5mm x 12.5mm wire is attached to the roof with screws.

The feeding door as you see here has a small cross bar in the top right to stop it pushing in. You will also notice a little red piece. It slides down to keep the door closed and prevents the birds unlocking the door.

Here you see the bank almost fully wired and sections of the sloping roof being prepared. At the rear you can also see the 50mm high vents fully wired to allow hot air to escape. The vents run the rear of the walkway and both sides. Each aviary is double wired.

As seen here the parts of the frame not already bolted down to the concrete are fixed with more dynabolts. Dynabolts are added regularly during the building process. If the aviary is not bolted down sufficiently then it could move and be damaged during high winds and poor weather.

Cladding of the colourbond and adding of the roof takes place as does the adding of the perches.
And finally the finished product on display featuring a sloping double roof minus a few essentials which will be added as you will see below. 

A view of the door showing the lower half clad and internally a strip placed so rodents/snakes can't get in. The top half is wire clad to prevent the keeper from opening up the door if a bird is out. A section at the front of the bank has been prepared for easy entry in the case that one attends the aviary to find a bird has somehow got free in the walkway. The top middle of the door shows a chain that attaches to the frame and the door to prevent the door blowing open too far.

A view showing inside the walkway with the table installed and step for checking nest boxes at the far end.

Water is plumbed in and a sprinkler installed. 

Here you see the sprinkler head which is installed at the mid section of each bank at the front of the aviaries.

Water is delivered to each aviary via a copper pipe attached to pvc as seen here.

The boxes are then added, perches added and lastly the birds added. Here you see A Frame boxes and the perches are taken from Eucalypt's and Casuarina's.

To help with record keeping such as eggs laid, dietary issues etc a blackboard is drilled to a section of the aviary. 

A table is made and situated between the two banks. Here water bowls are cleaned and left to dry and tools etc held whilst maintenance takes place.

Here is a pic showing the concrete path between the two banks of aviaries after installation and prior to grass regrowth.

Here is the last pic in the series and a recent pic showing the fully functioning aviaries.

For more ideas and information on building aviaries, join the aviaries and cages group on facebook. It is a group with members from all over the world sharing their ideas and photos of their aviary set ups. 
https://www.facebook.com/groups/147417475336665/

Another group well worth visiting is Aviary design, planning, construction and management
https://www.facebook.com/groups/206104666082992/


Happy Birdkeeping,
Jade
www.jadewelchbirds.com

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