Unexpected musings on the nature of excellence in Aviculture.

 

As I sit here typing, I'm gutted. I had weeks back, prepared an article for you all that would have been a great accompaniment to the holiday season that is now upon some of us. Alas this morning in my hazy human stupidity I deleted the entire text and for whatever idiotic reason did not have a hard copy of this post to recover it. I am a fool for sure, the entire draft was completed and waiting to go public. There is no way I could rewrite the post in the time I have left before my deadline. I may have to try and re write in the new year.

But on that note I'd like to talk about something more personal, something that is probably more relevant to the season and the coming new year than the original topic. Maybe we could consider this an odd stroke of luck if we choose to.

Grab a hot drink of your choice, get comfy and let's chat about the nature of excellence.

There are many words we use to describe what we do, and I touched on this some time ago in another post about linguistics, but I want to take this rare chance to share with you what I think I have learned about the nature of progressiveness and excellence in aviculture.

As a young bird keeper, what seems like eons ago, I viewed the world in a somewhat naïve way, my lack of real academic understanding meant that I placed a huge amount of respect on the shoulders of anyone who appeared to know anything about birds and how to keep them. I had so much to learn and aviculture seemed like some sort of dark art to me, something to be honed and mastered like a budget Sith lord. I think almost everyone starts out like this in their view and some never leave this mindset even into adulthood, that is by the way, not a criticism, but an observation in my experience.

Here's a list of phrases

“Idiot”

“are you incompetent?”

“you don't know anything about anything”

These are all phrases uttered to me by people I respected when I was a young, maybe foolish birdkeeper trying to make my way. They echoed through my brain for many years and more so because the people that said them were people I respected, people I aspired to emulate. Today I can't think of anything worse.

 

Sometimes the real thing doesn't look the way you expect it to.

 

So how then is this relevant to my exploration of progressiveness and excellence?

Critical thinking and historical perspective - that's how. Being able to critically break down a situation and put it into perspective is key to maintaining these states, if indeed anyone really does that perfectly? The people that made those statements lacked all of those traits, they whole heartedly believed themselves to be finished “experts” in their fields. No such title exists in reality, the science of aviculture still holds too many mysteries for any of us to ever be “experts”. This is probably true of most things in life, the false confidence this saturates the individual with will produce many interesting statements!

Younger me viewed the world through an inherited lens, one of progress being a crude timeline based on the idea that what we do now will push the art of aviculture forward, and it will stay in that state, as a monument to progress. What we discover will make things better and the aviculture of the next century will be infinitely more complex and exciting as a result; and to some degree this is true, from a technological perspective at least, if we make good use of these advances.

Although crude by today's standards, this keeper was working with the best of what was available at the time, in this case improving the life of this Iguana.

Now we have access to technologies and ideas that were unthinkable in the last century, but yet sometimes our drive for progress and excellence can still feel somewhat hollow on a personal level. Why is this?

Viewing the world like a timeline we still see gross examples of poor husbandry everywhere. That is because on the whole, it seems that progress and excellence are not timelines, they are not auto updated situations and not every bird keeper out there is interested or aware of their nature, nor could they stumble upon this truth easily by accident.

If I can distil this idea into a few sentences, they might read something like this:

The nature of excellence in aviculture is a vacuum; a vacuum held stable only by the persistence and examples set by the best practitioners of the time, regardless of their background. Excellence is not an inherited trait, nor is it automatically inferred by any affiliation to any groups or institutions. It is a state of mind.

Of course excellent individuals may exist within groups and institutions, but there is no “factory” pumping out industrial grade greatness. You can't buy it, and also more importantly you can't earn it by virtue of years repeating the same things. I know keepers of a few years that have more horsepower in their little finger thanks to their outlook than some who have kept birds for decades the same way. It's a mindset. If we view things from a human timeline perspective, we put more focus on the people than their work: their true power and legacy is found here, in the eyes of the birds they care for.

The moment that an individual fails to work to their best potential, that vacuum collapses and mediocrity or worse prevails as the status quo, that being the sum mean between the best and worst of birdkeeping practice, which to me at least, is awfully uninspiring.

This reality called to me through time, a rather romantic notion, but a true one. My frustrations at “old school” birdkeepers drove me forward initially, but in spite of my hate for human nostalgia when it applies to animal welfare and my futurist outlook, I do have an interest in the past, there are nuggets of truth and unexplored trails in the pages of avicultural literature that can sometimes tell us things that as a demographic, we missed, it's like panning for gold.

The more I did this, the more I realised that avicultural husbandry has never really existed in a homogenous state, rather than the gentle timeline of progress and new ideas one might expect to see, what actually reveals itself is a parade of characters throughout history, all of whom are bound by one thing, their desire for the best for their birds. The challenges they faced in the past were maybe trivial by today's standards, but the honest truth is that they not only identified those issues competently in times when many bird species barely lived for months in human care, but they came up with solutions, they built the world we know today piece by piece. There were in those times many poor birdkeepers too, as we see today, and as we will see 100 years from now.

 

Here a keeper feeds a shoebill stork in a time when many species had to be forced to survive due to our poor understanding of their practical biology, today, this is not the case, but we still have much to learn.

I think what I'm trying to convey is that these traits are conditions created by a vast network of unique individuals, all of them holding their little vacuums to try and make things better, and it's this jigsaw that links us keepers today with them and in time, will link us to the keepers of tomorrow. Let us hope then that our legacies are as helpful as those we have inherited.

 

Durrell developed a perspective that animals in human care deserved to be more than just contained and fed, as evidenced in his books - a perspective that is only now really starting to solidify in academic terms in the sciences of welfare.

Lady Olive Baillie kept birds in a time when aviculture was dominated by men and old ideas, she was not put off by the status quo of the time - her physical legacy continued to grow until the end of the last century, well past her death.

Sir Peter Scott, controversial to some during his early days due to his shooting habits, eventually found personal sanctuary in conserving birds rather than shooting them. His books too tell this story, and his legacy lives on today as WWT.

Dr Bill Conway was an inovative thinker for his time, suggesting that species housed in zoos should be presented in accurate recreations of their own habitats, not only for themselves but also to help others learn. He also encouraged keepers to think on the proviso that in the future, someone might come along with a better idea than you currently have. Change is good.

So often in keeping circles we see the question asked, what advice do you wish you had when you were starting out?

Present Chris would tell young Chris that everything a keeper needs is inside of them already if they know where to look, an inquisitive mind, a heart that cares for more than just the human it inhabits. The only thing you need is to do your best and be honest with yourself when you are not, and I mean brutally honest. There will be people who will care more for themselves and their fears than for the truth of the goal, which is to leave birdkeeping (and life) better than you found it. Be fearless and never accept that the current state of the art and science is “enough”. As long as there are ways to improve there is work to be done. Don't believe the hype.

Many years back, a late, great curator of London zoo advised me, as a green keeper voicing my frustrations at the apathetic attitudes of some keepers...

“There will be d*ckheads, but you just have to sort through them”.

I'm now wise enough to understand the more subtle nuances of what he meant when he said that.

This is the blessing and curse of a keeper that strives for excellence, the truth of the matter outside of all the human interference is binary, as are most things in nature, there is something, or there is nothing.

You hold that vacuum or you don't.

Your brilliance shines or it doesn't.

The birds of now and the keepers of the future need you to shine. If you found your way to this moment right now by yourself, I suspect you already knew that.

Happy holidays, 2024 will be superb.

C.

NEWS: If you've made it this far and are still excited to learn more, you might be interested to know that we have recently set up a facebook group to help push forward thinking birdkeeping and discuss challenges and ideas. You can find it by searching Aviology: aviculture 2.0 on facebook or use the link HERE.

I may see you there!

The Aviologist's Manifesto - Key base points for good bird welfare in aviculture

Firstly let me warn you, there are a lot of questions in this post, mainly because it is about applying ideas to birds, and in particular your birds, which I likely know nothing about, hence the questions. They are rhetorical, but they might help connect dots for folks less familair with these ideas. Anyway, let's crack on.

Aviculture is many things to many people, it can be pleasure, conservation, agriculture or sport, but one thing that really defines the very best aviculturists of any sort is welfare. Regardless of the reasoning, any bird in any situation deserves, and can be given good welfare standards. I won't seek to outline all possibilities here, but using the core values of welfare I will go over some of the key points that can really have an impact on birds, and some that are maybe more subtle.

In it's most basic form, the five freedoms represent a starting point for good welfare, and are usually set out as shown below.

• Freedom from hunger & thirst

• Freedom from discomfort

• Freedom from pain, injury or disease

• Freedom to express normal behaviour

• Freedom from fear & distress

But what do these really mean from a bird keepers perspective and how can our experience and proactivity help maintain them to high standards?

Freedom from hunger & thirst

We all know at a base level, food and water are offered, and this is fairly easy to achieve, but there are ways to improve our offerings, both by improving general quality of the food offered but also the nutritional value and species specific suitability. Many birds that appear close to one another nutritionally often have similar diets, but they will almost never be identical in the wild. Researching wild diets as much as possible will help you pin down exactly what your bird needs. This is however not always perfect, as in rare cases some species, such as large parrots, would consume so much fat in the wild it would likely cause health issues for a bird in human care, the reason for this is that often, no matter how hard we try, we cannot offer the same level of athletic freedom that our birds would have in the wild to burn off these calories, in which case it would be appropriate to lower calories to compensate for this, but do so carefully, again, with research.

This point dovetails nicely into the next aspect of feeding, how are you feeding? I won't go into detail here, but the setting and format of the offering can and should be tailored to the species needs and what they might expect in the wild - offer them challenges rather than a simple bowl or portion, consider seasonality in their diet and how you could offer that.

 

Are your birds being challenged by their food? Is it stimulating?

 

 

Freedom from discomfort

A bird's environment is also key to a good welfare state. Several criteria apply to birds which should always be accounted for. The most obvious is space, offering a large area for birds to exercise is a critical component. Always offer as much space as you have available and disregard "minimum flight requirements" as these are arbitrary, sure birds will stick to set territories in the wild, but the average aviary is still a limitation by comparison. 

Consider not just flight itself, but the type of flight. Is the species a soaring bird that likes to glide from perch to perch over a distance, is it a hopping species that would prefer shorter jumps through dense cover. This is where detailed research on your species really helps you set up a good home for your birds. 

Perching should be appropriate and be tailored to the species in question. Owls for example, like chunky stumps and logs with some higher perching, whereas smaller birds like passerines will enjoy finer light perching. Perch girth is also important here, is the birds foot going to sit comfortably around the perch or is it too small? Good perching keeps nails naturally trimmed and feet healthy. In my experience hands down, the best perching is the perching nature made - real, non toxic branches, or better still real plants. They do take some maintenance but offer much more in terms of variability, comfort and behavioural stimulation. Positioning is key, a bird should be able to turn cleanly on any part of the perch without rubbing it's tail against a wall or mesh, in time this might result in feather damage.

An area that can sometimes be badly neglected is environmental conditions. Today there are still many birds kept in conditions far different to what they might expect in the wild. Given that evolution tailors a species to specific regions over millions of years, it stands to reason that they perform optimally if offered access to those conditions - Temperature is the most obvious, and I have written a more detailed post on this elsewhere on the blog. Humidity, noise pollution and appropriate lighting are also very important to consider in the environment. It is sometimes hard to see why birds behave the way they do, but often giving choice is best. Offer an area to be warm, offer an area to bask under UV, offer an area to bathe and try your best to maintain an appropriate humidity level that matches the wild habitat. I will likely cover these in more detail at some point in the future in separate posts.

Shelter from the weather, as well as access to it is ideal, why? Choice. Choice is the key to good welfare and you are giving birds the chance to choose where they would like to be. Keep your shelter draught free and if you are offering extra humidity in some form, ensure the shelter does not become damp, as this can cause fungal issues further down the line.

Give your birds plants. There is often the tendency to avoid offering plants up to some species as they can cause damage to them, parrots in particular. But outside of the human frame of reference, the parrots are enjoying good welfare here - they are having a blast (maybe at your expense) and expressing natural behaviours - this is keeping their minds active and bodies challenged. If you want a serious go at planting up an aviary for a more destructive species a large bulk of plants might be needed and some protection offered to the plants, in time the novelty may wear off and give the plants time to establish and be "normalised" in the birds mind. In most cases non destructive species welcome areas of planting as they not only add visual barriers and cover to the aviary but also if selected correctly, can offer spontaneous feeding opportunities in the form of berries or insects attracted to the plants.

If you do not have the scope for live plants, offering bits of tree or flower browse can give a similar effect, this will likely be messy, but the birds will thank you for it. More carnivorous species that do not forage may find this less interesting, but still there are a few examples I can think of where birds of prey have shown spontaneous interest in plant material. 

Are your birds comfortable in their environment? are they living their lives or would they rather be somewhere else?

 

Freedom from pain, injury or disease

As a bird keeper you have a base responsibility to protect your birds form pain, injury and disease. In the simplest way, this means having your nearest avian vet on speed dial in case of emergencies, keeping the bird's space safe and addressing obvious hazards and keeping things clean. I'm not going to go into any more detail here as this requirement is fairly clear cut. For the few who like to shark on social media hoping to save on vet bills, there are no good avian vets who spend their time waiting to help strangers for free on facebook with no examination. If you care about your birds get them seen properly when you are concerned.

Freedom to express normal behaviour

Birds have wide ranging behavioural repertoires that need to be catered for. This ranges beyond just the basics of eating, drinking and flying. There are far to many needs a bird has for me to reasonably outline all needs for all species here, so I won't try, but I can generalise on a few areas.

Foraging/hunting - can your bird carry out this behaviour or something close to it as regularly as possible? can you improve the quality and frequency of this?

Social needs - many species are strictly social and would never be alone in nature, so having appropriate social groupings is important. Flocking birds spend a huge amount of their day socialising and interacting with others and in human care there is often a tendency to keep birds in single pairs for breeding when this may not represent their natural state in the wild the rest of the year. Over the years I have seen many highly social and non aggressive species kept alone or in single pairs for no other reason than this is what others had done before. Yet again researching our species can offer answers here, how does your bird live, how could it's social life be improved?

Breeding needs are just as important as social needs and could in some ways be considered the same, in this case though we will look at them separately as some species become territorial when breeding and require their own space for that time at least. Even if you have no intention of breeding a bird, it is very healthy for them to go through the motions regardless. Large areas of their behavioural repertoire will be neglected otherwise, take for example nest building, where many hours or days will be focussed of the process of producing a nest. Allowing this process to run it's course allows the pair to vent the hormones that have been building leading up to the breeding season, rather than bottling them up, which can produce undesirable outcomes like misplaced aggression or excessive territoriality. Offer plenty of clean nesting materials year round so that when the moment takes them to start building, the option is there. Going through a breeding season even on dummy eggs is more stimulating than being denied the chance at all.

If you plan to breed your birds, for good welfare, allow them to rear their own chicks. Resist the urge to intervene, there may sometimes be failures, but this is how pairs learn. If you constantly pull chicks or mess around with the nest you will just throw the parents off. Give them time and space, and most of all be patient. The end result is steady, well adjusted birds who inherit their parent's learned range of behaviours and are far more likely to reproduce themselves later in life with the skills they have picked up. A good bird keeper can step back and be the environmental engineer rather than the overbearing god figure.

Are your birds able to live their lives to the fullest? Do you encourage the widest possible range of behaviour?

 

 

Freedom from fear & distress

Lastly freedom from fear and distress. This can mean many things for many birds and in this scenario it is as important to observe your own birds as much as you might research their wild life. Fear is largely a learned habit and various situations can trigger fear for reasons we can only guess at. Whilst we can not always understand why, we can at least observe and avoid triggering fearful situations. 

A simple and common example seen is a reasonable fear of bird nets. There will always be times when you need a net or towel, but in the times you do not, crate training is a great way to familiarise your birds with boxing themselves up - you are giving them the choice to participate in their own care and this means a lot. Ask how you can remove the fear stimulus, and if you cannot, how can you reduce the level of fear it causes? Another good example are fireworks: some of my birds get jumpy when they hear loud bangs they cannot see, a simple solution is that I play a quiet radio to them during the day year round which helps familiarise them with all sorts of novel sounds and makes November and new year more bearable for them. Offering low level light (think mid moonlight level) helps keep birds settled at night and reduces the instance of night fright injuries as there is still enough light for them to wind down safely rather than smash about in a panic in the dark. Little things all add up in these cases.

I must mention at this point, that some fear and distress is healthy for birds and again, mimics their life in the wild, but we have to be a bit sensible here and realise that although we are trying to offer the wild, this is not the wild, and our birds cannot escape their stressors. This is the difference between a bird of prey flying over and causing a momentary panic response, which will naturally die down, VS constant barking of a nearby dog - momentary stress Vs. chronic stress. Chronic stress will cause health issues eventually, making them vulnerable to disease, by which point it is often too late to fix. Watch your birds closely, see what they see, learn what bothers them personally, don't expect them to understand the triviality, to them the fear is very real.

 

What are your bird's biggest fears? do you know?

 

 

In a very simple way, this is how I view bird keeping as a whole, the thing that ties all practices together is good welfare, and these principles can be applied to any bird in any situation. It takes time to be able to look at a bird without ethograms and other quantifiable methods and have a good idea of what the bird is feeling, data is ideal, but in some cases there may be no time to gather any, so knowing as much about your birds as possible is infinitely helpful and that kind of experience cannot be taught. You need to start learning this if you have not already.

My takeaway today is that the five freedoms are a good starting point in really developing levels of husbandry that offer high welfare states. Learn them, and more so learn how they apply to birds. If you have to, grab a pen and paper, go to your bird's environment and try and get under their skin, think about what issues might arise and how you can remedy them. 

Know the birds and know their space.

NEWS: If you've made it this far and are still excited to learn more, you might be interested to know that we have recently set up a facebook group to help push forward thinking birdkeeping and discuss challenges and ideas. You can find it by searching Aviology: aviculture 2.0 on facebook or use the link HERE.

I may see you there! 

 

Till next time, have fun and keep on doing the best by your feathered friends.

C.