Hi Everyone

Finally having another attempt to post some of our aviary & bird photos from New Zealand.....so here goes!..............

Best wishes from Perequito

 

 

Hi and Welcome, your birds are lovely, what other sort of birds do you have, did I see love birds or are they parrots.

Hi there, thankyou...we have about a dozen Bourkes Parakeets, 2 pr of Turquoisines, 3 chinese quail, & a couple of adopted mature cockateil brothers who love to poke their beaks into everything! Funnily enough, we've always found that the cockateils will quickly back-down when faced with baby budgies just out of the nest, which looks hilarious!

I really love this wonderful website with the most amazing helpful information, generously given by so many.

Greatly appreciated!

Wow, your aviaries look so interesting and fun! Lovely pretty birds

very beautiful budgies perequito!

 

i love the diversity of colour you have in your aviary!!

lovely vibrant colours and shades!

and the babies are adorable =]

 

i really like the things you have on your aviary wall!!!

are these the budgies little homes they go to after a hard day out in the aviary???

they have neighbours =] haha very cute

 

did you make them??

Thanks for the lovely comments... Yes we built it ourselves a number of years ago - my husband is a carpenter so he welded all the pipe framework & made the lovely shelters which house the nest boxes, & we laced on the wire netting until our fingers were almost raw Hahahaha. We sometimes have 15-20cm of snow on the roof of the aviary during a harsh winter, & it amazes us how tough these little guys are! (last year we added some clear plastic blinds that we can roll up & down when it gets too freezing, which has worked really well.) After 12yrs or so we've discovered the hard way a few things that work well, & a some that certainly don't. We totally understand the drawbacks of the colony style aviary, but because it's hobby-status only, we still love keeping it as close to a natural type habitat as we can achieve in the space available; lots of fresh gum branches etc. I've learnt so much watching them rear their young, much as they would in the wild, gathering all the variety of different foods to feed their babies a balanced diet. Particularly love watching the parents pulling their fledglings wings & picking at their toes to get them to "launch off" & fly.....just hilarious! We are constantly resisting the urge to "build-on", so it does take some juggling around at times. Just love this site & searching for great ideas... we are currently re-thinking our drinking water arrangements as the Turks & Bourkes are little ratbags at washing their bums as soon as you put the fresh water in - think they need bath water & drinking bottles too . We have to keep our nosy cockateils away from the nesting action, but if they get a chance to get through the door, this is the result!!!!

 

Edited December 12, 201014 yr by Perequito

I love the way your nestboxes have little front porches or verandah areas where they can land before going through the nestbox hole

Really gorgeous how the cockatiels get nosey.

Look's really nice set-up for a backyard aviary. Mine are pets only as well with a similar aviary. Love your birds variations and colours also very similar to my own l.o.l.

Look's really nice set-up for a backyard aviary. Mine are pets only as well with a similar aviary. Love your birds variations and colours also very similar to my own l.o.l.

 

 

 

I have some tiels but have resisted putting them in the same aviary.

You don't have any problems with conflict.

 

 

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Our two "adopted" cockateils were well-bonded brothers when we got them, & they are pretty much wrapped up in each other Hahahaha. They do make a nuisance of themselves sometimes with their obsession with " those fascinating little nest boxes that we just cant quite squeeze into!!" In their half of the aviary we now keep them out of the main house by keeping the doors shut & making the entry holes too small for them - however as our Bourke/Turq numbers have increased we've had to put a couple of nest boxes in the flight, & the cockateils just cant resist trying to gnaw their way into those.

As far as fighting goes, they pretty much only scrap with each other, & they can be quite aggressive with each other at times. They only have an occasional minor skirmish with the other species, but the smaller birds more than hold their own in those confrontations. I think it has more to do with each birds personality myself - some are just nice natured & some are born stroppy, as with the human species

We used to keep the cockateils in with the budgies, & that worked just fine, until one of the cockateils really sort of....well... "fell in love" with one particular male budgie in a very obsessive manner, & that caused utter mayhem - jealous fighting all round! Hence they got moved in with the grass parakeets & peace was restored. Bit like a soap opera isn't it really?!!

Very pretty birds you have there Perequito.