Giant aviary, beautiful... everyone loves to see birds in large flights interacting with their own kind and
maybe even compatible species, this avian utopia seems great in the
first instance, but...
One of the primary forces behind this blog is to
extend past the work done so far in modern aviculture and look deeper into the mechanics of good avian husbandry and
welfare, all the while keeping content accessible for all bird keepers. We often see photographs of some of the largest, well
planted and well designed aviaries from all over the world, these are
always popular but many people are not so aware of the major
disadvantages of such large spaces, there are a few, although they
are problems that can be overcome with a little behaviour
engineering.
Austin Powers is a dedicated bird keeper... true story.
The issues which arise in larger flights are often
welfare related, the first obvious one is illness. Sick or injured
birds become very difficult to reach in an enormous aviary, they
cannot be given an easy visual health check and some minor issues
could go unnoticed until they become a major issue.
Say Bird X is a species prone to pododermatitis
(bumblefoot) the first initial stages where the problem could be
resolved with less stress may drop under the radar until bird X is
lame and the infection has worked it's way well into the foot making
it much harder to deal with. The bird then needs to be caught up
which is no easy task in a large flight, causing stress not only to
the bird but all of its cohort in the aviary with it. I have heard
horror stories of people having to hose birds out of the air in order
to catch them, not ideal for yourself, the bird or the vet needing to
see the animal.
How then can we address such a critical issue,
small aviary = easy maintenance and good access but large aviary =
good welfare and bad access.
There is a third option, training. It takes
patience and an understanding of the individuals biological needs,
likes and fears, it takes time, but what it equals is a bird that can
be moved around much easier than a wiley aviary bred bird that fears
humans (It's worth mentioning that much of that fear is due to the
calamity that follows a catch up!) Simple techniques are already
widely used and can be combined to put together a basic training
scheme for most species. Today we are going to look at the simplest one. Many further behaviours can be trained from this basic level of training, so it's a good place to start.
Targeting
Traditional target training has been used for
centuries with many different types of animal for many reasons, in
this case training a bird to a target point makes shifting a bird
inside or outside much easier than having to shoo them in or out. All
that is needed on the very simplest of levels is a unique sound,
working fingers and a favourite treat (remove this item from the
daily diet to increase incentive). In this instance I will recommend
the use of a target stick and a clicker, simple training tools which
are good if you are not the only one who might need to move them. In
my experience the best colours to get birds focused are red and
yellow, these colours are often associated with feeding in most bird
species and are easily differentiated from the surroundings as they
are generally a rare colour in the aviary setting. If you find
another colour works better for you, use that, the idea is to get
something that can easily mean "come here = get treat".
Next the clicker can be used in place of a verbal
command as a bridge, a bridge is a sound used to indicate to the bird
that it has done the right thing and a reward is coming, this can be
very useful when getting a treat out is delayed or you need to reduce
the amount of treats given or wish to link up several trained
behaviours and reward for all of them.
A Clicker - A cheap and simple tool to create a consistent bridging sound.
Target sticks - focus the bird on the coloured end ball.
The process is fairly simple and once
a bird has got the idea it will usually progress quite quickly.
Depending on the wildness of the bird and the context you will have a
varying amount of work to do. We will start with wild aviary birds
and go from there, should you find yourself getting there speedier
then skip some steps until it is relevant to you. DO NOT skip steps
out of impatience, you may rush and scare the bird and create fear
memories and render the whole exercise pointless.
It's good to remember that training takes planning
and can become very complex, for the benefit of all levels of reader
I am going to keep it straightforward. But please think this through
and tailor it for your own birds before you steam ahead.
1. A scatter feed or bowl feed -
Depending on how the species you are working with
feeds you will need to adapt this, but the main aim is to begin to
build a tolerance and bond with the bird, we want them to be
connecting you with a nice treat. It is helpful to carry the target
stick with you so that the birds can start forming connections and
get used to it so that it is not a scary novel object when the
training begins. For parrots or perching birds use a small coop cup
bowl in an area where the animal regularly lives and feeds. When you
arrive drop a treat item into the bowl, making sure the bird has seen
you do so, it is important they know you put it there. At this point
if it is appropriate you can use the clicker to signal that you have
delivered the item to the bowl, this will start to build a connection
between the sound and the reward, in time this can be tightened up as
a bridge signal, but for now a basic association is needed. Once the
bird understands the situation they will learn to be more tolerant of
you and will take less and less time to come to collect the reward.
once the bird is very close to the bowl anticipating the reward on
your arrival, then we can move onto step 2. for ground living birds a
light scatter feed nearby yourself will bring the birds in in the
same way city pigeons become very tame around people with food, once
the bird is waiting nearby expecting a treat to be dropped to it, we
move onto step 2 here also.
2. Reward taken from hand or receptacle - starting
with the target -
Now the bird is used to receiving rewards
from you and understands that clicker means food, the next step is to
get them to start doing something for it! it should be a short jump
to get the bird to take a reward from your fingers directly or if the
species has a habit of biting or you would rather use a bowl for this
then do so. Once they easily take a reward after a bridge without
hesitation the target stick can then be used. With parrots this is
easy as most well adjusted parrots will investigate objects placed
tight in front of their beak, others will not be so quick, but the
idea here is to get the bird to understand when it touches the target
stick correctly it receives it's reward. Continue this work until
they will, like before touch the target stick on command without
hesitation for their reward.
3. Movement with targeting -
Start to move the target stick to different areas
and get the bird in the habit of looking for and following the
target. From this point it is easy to see how birds can be shifted
from one area to another using target training, need them inside a
shelter? Go into the shelter and call them in using the target stick,
in they come!. If it is the right time you could give them a meal if
you want this to become a daily routine, in time you may find them
already indoors anticipating your arrival, it is important to keep up
their training though in case you wish to change their routine at a
later date. Keep yourself and your birds in good habits. Want to move
them outside? do the same in reverse and shut them out. This sort of
training also allows us to keep an eye on the birds health and the
daily interaction helps us develop our observation skills as keepers.
With large groups of birds this same method can be used but you will
have to accept that they will have to be shifted as a pair or group.
Individual target training is possible with separate sessions ans
separate bridge sounds and target sticks, it does however take a lot
of time and planning and if you are starting out it might be a little
overwhelming to jump in at this point.
As you can see, this simple behaviour training is
just the first step in learning to maintain birds in large flights. A
bit of a "bringing the mountain to Mohammed" situation. One
that falconers have been doing for centuries in the open air.
Large flights need not be a problem at all if
proper training is carried out and this training does not have to
interfere with the birds normal lives as long as you keep it strictly
in the interests of the birds husbandry needs. Resist training
unneeded tricks to your birds, you are wasting their time if the
behaviour does not serve them in any way.
C.