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With all the exciting luxury aviaries springing up, I thought I'd share a nice blueprint for the perfect home floorspace plan that I found. It's perfect!

Thank you SO MUCH! I'm going to take a look at the Suntuf in a moment. I have some additional concerns moving forward with the plans. The contractor designed the aviary with the idea of having only the roof panels; so no mesh on the top. Now I'm beginning to think that it might not be a good idea to go that route, especially if I decide to use the Suntuf. The eucalyptus trees are known to drop branches here and there, so I'm fearful that if I don't have any roof mesh, that a branch could possibly penetrate one of those panels, and then my birdies will fly off into the sunset. He's coming by tomorrow, so I really need to wrap my plans up quickly. Okay..I just looked at the Suntuf website. Nice product! Would you go with the clear or opal white?

Omg, my heart is broken for this poor family. Thank you for this warning! Hopefully you both have saved many lives.

This is most tragic! How sad,

That's a tough call. We had the exact same dilemma and I finally decided to just use one type of panel all the way across. We went with the 'Solar Grey' as it has 35% light transmission. We have plenty of soffit for the birds to hide under should they want to get completely in the shade. Here in Texas we regularly get temps 90-100 for weeks or months on end. So I'm fully expecting to have to find a way to push air through our aviary. If you do use the SunTuf, I don't believe you will be able to use any other panel as the ridge profiles are hexagonal in shape. Most galvanized panels and the regular polycarbonate panels are a 'sine curve' shape. There is no guarantee those will fit together either as the curves may be different sizes between the two products. I do know, you DO NOT want to use the clear polycarbonate paneling that you will find at Lowes/HD. That stuff is pure junk and breaks easily. It's listed at HD under the name 'Palruf'. If you're going to have open sides, which I believe is what you are doing, you can easily hang a box fan and a mister on the outside and cool their jets with that. That's what I did on our outdoor aviary. Here's what I would do based on what I think you're building and what I know of how my birds have behaved in both my aviaries: I would put a solid section of roofing ~2ft out from the side of the house, very similar to the way our roof soffits are in our new aviary. Our birds tend to want to hang out under that. Our outdoor aviary has a tree that shades part of it and that's where they hang 90% of the time. They sell a closure strip that we used to join the SunTuf panels to the flat roofing board which is exactly what you would do too. I think I may have a pic of that before it was shingled. Have you thought about having a camera out there? I can't tell you how much peace of mind that brings being able to monitor them from inside the house. I have a dedicated monitor at home and work that is nothing but the live feed from my camera. Here is the manufacture link for the Suntuf panels. It contains the different colors, how much light they transmit and a couple of good videos comparing them. https://www.palramamericas.com/Products/corrugated-sheets/SUNTUF/ If you do decide to go with Suntuf, you will need their closure strips and what they call their 'horizontal'. Those are not sold at Home Depot which is completely stupid. I had to order them and wait, fortunately our contractor had other stuff he did in the meantime. https://www.palramamericas.com/Products/corrugated-accessories/CorrugatedAccessories/

For several years I have been planning on building my fid family an outdoor aviary. Last month we broke ground and poured its foundation, complete with drains. Within the next 2 weeks the materials for the structure should be ready to go! I agonized over what type of mesh to use, and finally decided to go with stainless steel mesh, 1/2x1/2 inch. Galvanized after welding is so much cheaper, but I really worried about my bird's exposure to any zinc remaining on the wires, so I decided to bite the bullet and go with stainless steel. There will be a chute from the side of the aviary that'll be directly attached to my bedroom window. I won't have to carry them out to the aviary in carriers, but will be able to place them inside the chute, and then they can fly right into their bird haven. Size of the aviary is 20x10.

If you are feeding any one of these three foods, pull them. Word is going around about two sanctuaries that have had small mass die-offs and two of these foods are common among both. The third, Lefebers is being tested, I would pull it too. Also pass the word along in any channels you participate in. The original posting is lengthy so I'm including the foods here in case no time to read the post. Zupreem Fruitblend, large size for macaws, cockatoos etc. Higgins Vitaseed Lefeber's Nutriberries Original posting from "Birds And Beaks Rescue and Rehab":

Sorry, the last few weeks Jay has been under the weather and we missed a lot on the Grey Forum. A few days ago, I woke up and Buddy was gone. We do not know if it was because he had lost his BFF, Pistachio, but we think that may have been part of it. It was funny, but I had checked on him the night before and he was good...I had a dream early the next morning about Buddy being in an open cage in the middle of a field and he had been so calm when I changed his dishes that he had surprised me. When I jumped awake, I realized there was no sound from him and he had always been better than an alarm clock. I think he was telling us he was now at peace...

One must know one's place if he was born a peasant.

I absolutely adore the relationship you have with Greycie. She certainly has you wrapped around her little talons!

Cozy and adorable, serene moment.

Fly free Buddy you will always be loved and missed.

Very exciting design, now how to fill that space properly.

Tragic you would hope this was not true.Awful results and appreciate the warning I will share this information.

We went with the Solar Grey, it's a really nice smokey color and casts a bronze light (sort of like the color you see when there's a forest fire in the area and the sky is filled with smoke - bad joke I know - but that really is what it looks like underneath them). Home Depot only carries Clear and Solar Grey in our area so I never got to see the others. We have enough sunlight that comes through the windows on the side that I'm not concerned about maximum sunlight overhead. They provide the partial shade I was after and then under the soffits it's full shade. How are you building the roof? We have 16 ft beams like what they use on a pergola. The beams come directly off our house roof. The Suntuf panels sit directly on top of the beams (on top of the Suntuf 'horizontals' but that has no bearing on what I'm talking about). Then on the underside of the beams I am putting up 16 gauge wire. So there will be a space the width of the beam between the wire on the bottom and the panel sitting on top. Similar to you I don't want something punching a hole in the panel and my birds getting an escape route. My concern is a squirrel chewing through. If there is threat of hail, I won't have them out there anyway so a baseball size hailball I'm not worried about. These panels will take a pretty good strike but it is possible a branch could punch through if directed just right.

Thanks! Would you recommend doing the entire roofing in that rather than what I was thinking, which is to alternate between galvanized steel:plastic panels? I wanted them to be able to find shade as needed, and was thinking that having the entire roof made out of those plastic sheets would make it too hot for them.

That's going to be great!

The roof will be a combo of every other panel being steel/outdoor patio plastic stuff so that more light can filter through. I didn't want there to be any cross beams onto which my fids could climb, thereby making it a challenge to retrieve them at night. My 4 German Shepherds will do a fine job cleaning up the tossed food at the end of the day. The next door neighbors have a junk heap of stuff collecting in their back yard, which has made their property a great haven for rats. That's one of the main reasons why I went with 1/2x2 inch mesh. And no, I'm located in sunny Southern California. Those are eucalyptus trees, plus bamboo growing on the other side of the fence. Next I'll have to figure out what kinds of bird safe vegetation I'll have growing inside the aviary.

This puts a rest to my suspicions that there is a Grey conspiracy out there to get their hoomans to build luxury aviaries. You'll love being able to shove them in and out from the house. That's the one thing I didn't like about my first outdoor aviary - it's too hard to get in and out of. Once I put them in I was reluctant to pull them out. Silkies make really good cleanup crew if you need something to pickup the food that gets tossed. What kind of roof are you putting on it? Wire? If I didn't know any better, I'd guess you were from Australia. Your yard looks really similar to the yard where my wife grew up in Toowoomba. Those almost look like native australian gum trees.

If you ask around, the most common answer you will get is Avianbiotech. However they were busted a few years ago providing false results so I have avoided them. I have successfully used vetdna and my birds have all seemed to match the results - meaning my males ended up looking and acting like males and vice versa https://vetdnacenter.com/dna-tests/avian-dna-testing/

I am so sorry for your loss.

Guys I have a friend North Ohio in search of a rescue grey, We recently visited him with Sukei and he fell in love with him. He has a three story house, with plenty of room, and patience. He is home all the time, and can spend the time needed to rehab one. Thanks

Good luck to your friend! Try reaching out to Dee, she knows every rescue there is.

I am very sorry. It must have been his choice to join his bff. They leave such an empty place, however, even if they do wait for us.

There is PEAC near Cleveland. Parrot Education and Adoption Center. They have a facebook page if you want to check them out. They have been around longer than I have had Peanut. The fb page says they are in Cal. but when I google them, they still show up in Cleveland. I have no idea what is going on.

I am so sorry for your loss. The two of them will be waiting for you at the Rainbow Bridge.

Yes, I have used petfinder. It's very good. Good luck, I hope your friend finds the perfect match!

If I was looking Id be all over that Bingo. We've used the petfinder successfully 3-4 times. There are probably rescues nearby?

No feed back LOL, so maybe someone can give me an opinion. Is this a reputable organization? Is there anyway to tell? There is no phone number or I cant find one. He is willing to drive from Ohio to visit and possibly rescue him. http://www.lonelygreyrescue.org/asite/Adoptables.html links to https://www.petfinder.com/bird/bingo-36400175/nj/woodbridge/lonely-grey-rescue-nj775/

Well perhaps the location is a problem, the only way I know to rescue a grey is to go to a place no one would go. Perhaps maybe some advise on how to do it. I googled the subject but there seems to be some conflicting information. Any thoughts?