Prologue

Our community of finches has been housed in a wide variety of environments, starting twenty-two finches in a large portable flight cage.  When we realized we had too many finches for this sized cage, we bought two smaller flight cages and joined the three cages together. 

However, this amalgam of flight cages was hard to clean and still not large enough to properly house our finches, so work on designing a walk-in indoor aviary began.  Work on The Dream Indoor Aviary was complete in March, 1997 and our finches lived in this aviary until July 2002 when we decided to downsize our lives to move to an apartment condominium.

 

The Downsized Dream Indoor Aviary

By 2002, the numbers of finches had decreased, due to finding new homes for some and the deaths of others, to only ten finches.  Due to the impending move and the decreased finch population, we decided to downsize the aviary to fit into our new living space.

To downsize the Dream Aviary, we simply removed the two side panels and replaced them with the angled panels that contained the doors, then cut the back plywood panel to match the size of the front Plexiglas panel.

The top plywood was discarded, leaving the downsized white enamel shelving to serve as the place on which the fluorescent lighting is placed.  Plastic aquarium plants also hang from the shelving to give the finches privacy.

ABOVE: A view from the dining room of the Downsized Dream Aviary which contained ten finches.
 

Dimensions

The following are outside dimensions of the structure:

• Height is 6.5'

• depth is 27"

• width is 6'

Total floor space is approximately 13.5 square feet.

Total volume is approximately 87 cubic feet.

The Dream Indoor Aviary
 

The primary reason the Dream Aviary was built was because we slowly realized we had too many finches for the size of the housing we'd been providing.

Months of planning and false starts prevented the aviary from completion for quite some time, but finally in March of '97 it was up and full of birds. Hallelujah!

ABOVE: A view from the living room of the Dream Aviary which contained sixteen finches.
Just to the right is the Original Aviary which then housed one pair of owl finches.

A Brief Description

Pictures are definitely worth a thousand words. The above is a photograph taken from as far away from the structure as was possible. You'll notice the left side has been cut off simply because the photographer couldn't get far enough away from it to get both Dream and Original Aviaries in the frame.

The Dream Aviary is a six sided structure built in panels. The back is one panel. The front is another panel. There are two side panels as well as two front corner panels containing the doors.

The floor is one sheet of plywood cut to size, and so is the roof. Fluorescent fixtures are attached to the roof.

Frames of the front, side and corner panels are constructed of well-aged fir and coated with several layers of latex stain and latex Varathane.

The back panel is made of plywood. It is painted with subtle shades of white, gray, and blue-green to simulate a cloudy sky.

The diagonal panels on each front corner contain doors that swing open from the far ends. Doors are made of the old leftover side panels from the when the Original Aviary was converted to the Improved Aviary, and are gold colored .5" spaced metal wire. The portion of panel directly above the door have Plexiglas mounted onto it.

The front and side panels have Plexiglas mounted onto them.

Floor and ceiling are made of plywood coated with several layers of latex stain and Varathane. Full spectrum lights are mounted in the ceiling. Between the lights and finches, are white enamel metal premade European-type shelving cut to size. This shelving is strong and durable. All of the perches, seed dispensers and toys are hung from it. Oh, and so did one of our female spice finches occasional hang from it.

Dimensions

The following are outside dimensions of the structure:

• Height is 6.5'

• depth is 3.5' at its deepest

• width is 8'

Total floor space is approximately 24 square feet.

Total volume is approximately 156 cubic feet.

After living with our original fourteen finches for a month in the Original Aviary, which was really only a flight cage, we decided a much larger aviary would benefit the birds we already kept as well as for the ones we hoped to add. Long discussions were followed by a series of drawings, then work on the new aviary eventually began.

As we planned and drew, we asked ourselves, why not buy a few more finches?  We'd soon have a much larger space for them all anyway. Two months later, by Christmas, we'd stocked the original 32" wide by 20" deep by 50" high flight cage with a total of nineteen finches. Unfortunately, unforeseeable health circumstances prevented Chris' dad from continuing work on the structure. By Christmas, construction had stalled indefinitely. During this time, too, stress inside the flight cage became apparent. There were a lot of territorial disputes between birds, and one bird showed signs of being plucked by the others. It surely seemed that we had counted our chickens before they'd hatched in terms of finishing the new aviary, and our birds were beginning to suffer for our mistakes.

ABOVE: A view from the living room of the Improved Aviary
which then housed eighteen finches.

The Needs Analysis

The mistake we made by adding too many finches to an already crowded flight cage needed to be fixed. A realistic timeline of construction tasks was drafted and we discovered that mid-February would be the very earliest the new aviary would be complete. Yikes! we thought, that's too long to allow the finches to remain suffering in crowded conditions. The most obvious short term solution was to buy more cage space for them.

So, early on Boxing Day morning of 1997, of all the high stress times to shop for anything, we set out on our cage quest. At the back of the bird section at a chain pet store, we noticed a couple of suitable cages of similar size.

The better quality cage of the two, however, was ambiguously priced. A clerk quickly clarified the price by casually informed us we'd get 40% off the already sale price of $269. The original price had been $369. How could we justifiably pass up a near perfect solution to our self-inflicted problems for only $162?

By early afternoon, the new cage was ready for habitation. I sat back to admire the new perch arrangement of pear branches. Which of our finches would best like to be moved to the new space, I pondered. Then, it struck me. What if we can get another cage from another store of the same chain for, get this, the same price? We could somehow connect the two new cages together, or even all three together. Wouldn't the finches benefit from having even more space? Off again we went. Finally, in the third store of the chain we visited, we found the same cage, but this time for $399. After explaining our quest for a second cage, and after a clerk's phone calls to some unseen manager, we had indeed secured a second cage exactly like the first one for, you guessed right, the same incredibly low price!

ABOVE and BELOW: Front and back views of a red eared waxbill.

Cage Description

The new cages are commercially made. Front, back and sides have been fixed into place at the time the heavy metal outer frame was originally assembled. The top panels open up from the center outward. All panels are made of rigid black colored powder coated wire, the vertical bars of which are spaced a half inch apart. Four inch high plates of 1/4" glass slide into place around the cage perimeter to keep the finch mess inside each cage. A bottom tray of white powder coated metal easily slides out for cleaning. A metal grate has also been provided which is slid into place while the tray has been removed for cleaning. When not in use the grate sits out of the way near the aviary.

Dimensions

While the total height of each cage is 55 inches, the actual finch living space rests on 24 inch legs atop castors and is sized:

• 31 inches high

• 18 inches deep

• 27 inches wide

Total floor space is 3.4 square feet.

Total volume is 8.7 cubic feet.

The front panel has one opening in the middle, fitted with an up and down sliding door. This door is used daily to water plants, clean the environment, or to catch the finches for health-care or other reasons. The side panels each have one opening, also positioned near the middle of each panel, and are fitted with up and down sliding doors. These openings are intended for hanging nest boxes on the outside of the cage.

Decisions, Decisions

Several possibilities existed for our use of the original aviary and the two new cages:

• keep each structure separate, and house a few finches in each of the three spaces.

• connect the two new cages to each other and leave the original aviary standing alone. Some finches would go into one or the other space.

• connect the aviary to one cage and let one cage stand alone.

• connect them all together and all of the finches would have a much larger space in which to dwell.

Connecting the aviary and cages together was the alternative of choice for several reasons:

• one set of food and water dishes to deal with daily.

• all finches would have access to the same length and breadth of space in which to fly, play, and generally live their captive lives.

• the arrangement of aviary in the center with one new cage connected on each side was actually quite esthetically pleasing.

The Construction Process

Housing the finches while the logistics of structural modification was worked out was the most significant obstacle to connecting the three structures.

Flight cage modification was started Boxing Day night. In darkness, one by one, the finches were transferred from the aviary to the two cages. They would remain in the cages while construction progressed.

The next morning work began in earnest. The sides of the original fight cage, the perches and accessories were removed. The structure was thoroughly washed (and was it dirty, even though it had been cleaned just the week earlier). Measurements were taken of the areas where the cages were incorrectly sized in height and depth compared to the aviary. 1/8" Plexiglas was cut to fill in the differences and secured by screws to each side of the aviary.

To prevent each of the two cages, full of finches by the way, from collapsing when their one side was removed, wooden dowels were carefully installed between the front and back at the tops and bottoms of each cage. This installation was accomplished while the sides were loosing hung in place as well as while the two cages could have collapsed at any time.

(At this stage, during this most delicate part of the construction, only two finches gained liberty. One society finch unfortunately made his way into our only room with windows devoid of blinds. He struck the window straight on. Woefully, we sat near him believing he'd broken his neck as he lay panting, his legs curling more tightly beneath him with each breath. After a few anguished minutes, he suddenly hopped to his feet and was fine. Our male red cheeked cordon bleu escaped awhile later. He simply hung around the aviary until we caught him and put him back with the others.)

Once the sides of the two cages were solid again, and the original flight care was properly fitted with Plexiglas, the consolidation stage began. All three structures were aligned and the first cage's side was slowly slid up and out of place. Cable ties were quickly tied around the frames of the first cage and the aviary.

The finches wasted no time in filling this new space, and were flying easily to and fro. The side of the second cage was then lifted up and out of place and cable ties quickly secured it to the aviary. Almost immediately, finches were everywhere: landing here, tasting this, exploring that! What a joy to observe them affirming their spirits in their new and roomier home.

ABOVE: Our pair of red eared waxbills.

The Original Aviary was a commercially made structure and was really only a flight cage. Front, back and top panels have been fixed in place to the heavy metal outer frame at the time of assembly. The two side panels are removable by lifting them up and out. All panels are made of rigid gold colored wire, the horizontal bars of which are spaced a half inch apart. A bottom tray of plastic easily slides out for cleaning. A metal grate has also been provided which is slid into place when the tray has been removed for cleaning. When not in use the grate sits out of the way near the aviary.

Seven inch high panels of 1/8" Plexiglas were added around the lower perimeter of the aviary to prevent the finch mess (feathers, seed hulls, etc.) from scattering throughout the house. Holes were drilled into the aviary's heavy metal frame and pivoting white plastic holders installed to hold the Plexiglas panels in place. A twelve inch Sun-Glo full spectrum tube was added just above the aviary for added light.

ABOVE: Sal, one of our female spice finches.

Dimensions

While the total height of the aviary is 62 inches, the actual finch living space rests on twelve inch legs atop castors and is sized:

• 50 inches high

• 20 inches deep

• 32 inches wide

Total floor space is 4.4 square feet.

Total volume is 18.5 cubic feet.

The front panel has four openings, two at the same height near the top and two at the same height near the bottom, all with top latching, swing-out doors. Both upper and lower openings are used daily to change food dishes, water plants, clean the environment, or to catch the finches for health-care or other reasons.

The side panels each have two openings positioned near the top of the panel. The doors of these openings can be unlatched, pulled up and used to hang outside nest boxes. A total of four homemade birch plywood nest boxes can be in use at any one time.