Abstract
Providing a healthy environment for a collection of exotic birds is Like playing tennis, twirling a baton or riding a skateboard; it looks easy until you've tried it.
I started my own aviary soon after I came to the United States from Cuba in 1954. I wasn't exactly a novice with birds because in Cuba my father raised macaws. parrotlets and conures. Having my own aviary, my own birds, I thought was going to be an exciting adventure. I was going to have lots of fun and few problems.
Well, I have had fun. After a good deal of study, I can identify several hundred species and sub-species of bird varieties; I have become a national pet bird show judge. One of my biggest thrills in a bird event occurred last year when I discovered that in a show I was judging there were SEVEN Grand Eclectus "Iorius roratos roratus", birds of which both female and male have a peculiar body feather structure which resembles fur freshly groomed.
I have a wonderful aviary of close to 400 birds including some of the endangered species like the Black Hooded Red Siskins "Spinus cucullatos" which I'm trying to help perpetuate. I also have newer mutation canaries like the Sarine Canaries (sex-link character); Ino Canaries; Recessive Character Albino, Pastel and Ivories all in the tree ground colors; yellow' orange and white, pure white recessive canaries, and Deep Red Factor Canaries. This last one was obtained through descendants of progeny of the first-cross males from the mating of the Black Hooded Red Siskin and female canaries, and produced fertile first-cross hybrids and started a new ground color in the Serinus Serinus Canarius which is a passerine bird of the Fringiliidae family.
However, I can't say raising birds has been without problems. There have been diseases and pests, disappointments and near-disasters. I'll never forget the day a few years ago when I was feeding canaries in an outdoor walk-in cage. Suddenly a rainbow of silver, red and yellow swooped past me. [ nearly fainted. Almost a quarter of my collection had escaped. They flew up to the trees, decorated the telephone pole and the rooftop. They were gorgeous. I was speechless with the beauty of it and at my loss. Fortunately, most of the loss was tern porary. By putting seed in the cage I attracted all except five birds back within four hours. I just hope that the five found good homes.
This brings us to an interesting point:
Just what is a good home for caged birds so pampered and protected they can not compete for food and shelter against their natural predators in the wild. I think at last I have found the answer, which is so obvious it sounds trite and that is to recreate their natural habitats as closely as possible indoors. Shortly after the Big Jail Break, I vowed to build my dream house, not for myself, but for my birds. Because the U.S. Department of Agriculture keeps track of endangered species, I built my new quarantine quarters to its specifications.
My dream house has only one window.
It's air-conditioned and the walk-in flight cages have all the comforts of life outdoors - and then some - but none of the hazards. For example, they are supplied with piped-in music. Maybe this sounds strange to you, but my birds don't seem to think it is strange. They actually seem to enjoy the music and enjoyment of life seems to improve their stamina. Stamina improves my breeding program.
After the near-loss of my collection, I got smart. On the new quarters I put double screen doors. The building has a thermostatically controlled air-conditioning system, extractors to move the-air and keep it fresh and I am especially proud of my lighting system, which l think largely responsible for my success in breeding and raising healthy show-winning birds.
The lighting is a very dramatic way in which I reproduce the birds' natural environment and one which I recommend to you. For this. I use sunlight-simulating Vita-Lite fluorescents which almost exactly reproduce the kind of daylight which nurtures all living things.