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Bonding with an aviary bird?

AussieBird

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Kinda random thought I had today, how hard is it to bond with an aviary bird in an aviary? I don’t mean a super close bond, but a willing to interact bond.
Surely with enough food treats it’s possible, eager for everyone’s thoughts.
Just curious :)
 

BirdG1rl

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I agree...it is certainly possible, but may take a little patience and willingness on your part! :)
 

Britnicorn

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791F119C-5220-4861-A382-F6F822A76360.jpeg
I was like 9 or 10 in this pic

I can’t remember where it was at but I remember it was some sort of rescue- aviary and you could go in with supervision

This bird came right up to me, would let me pet him/her and would perch on me. I was only in there for like an hour before he/she started coming to me. The rest would flee if you got too close. I guess it probably depends on the bird:roflmao:


I know with cows they can be bred to tolerate humans better. Dairy cows are often bred to get better human tolerance since they’re pretty hands on. I assume this trait is passed down in all animals including birds, so some birds may never be okay with humans interacting with them while some will
 

Shezbug

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Yes it’s possible- depends on the situation, the bird and you… if all things align well you’ll make friends no problems.
There’s a couple of rescues in Aus that I follow on Instagram and the people who run them have great relationships with their previously skittish, plucking, untamed birds. The whole aviary flocks to them when they enter and are just so loving and friendly. An awful lot has to do with the human involved;)
 

Zara

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Can you fit a chair in there? If not take a bit of cardboard to sit on and hang out in there with a laod of millet on hand.
Move slowly always.
 

AussieBird

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Thanks for the replies! I guess the main thing I was wondering is if anyone has had a bond that didn’t just rely heavily on treats.
I do think it’s possible, but wanted to be thinking realistically.
 

The_Mayor

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@Destiny has an outdoor aviary and it seems like her budgies are happy to interact with people, but the pictures usually do involve sprays of millet, so maybe it is at least somewhat food-driven.

My experience is that in some ways an aviary is just a bigger cage and in some ways it isn't.

As others have said, it's going to depend on the bird and the person.

Maybe an analogy is having a long-distance relationship with a person. There are plenty of instances of it working, but it's harder to maintain. If you've got a velcro bird I can't imagine that they'd say, "now that I've got all this freedom, I don't want to spend time with you anymore." A lot of times birds that are kept in aviaries are ones that aren't/don't want to be interactive with people, and being in an aviary means they mostly don't have to.

Going back to my own experience, my birds didn't come to me hand-tamed and they aren't of a species that tends to have tight bonds with people. And, I intentionally got two, knowing that would lessen their incentive to bond with me, because I wanted to make sure they weren't lonely when I'm not around.

I had made some progress towards getting them hand-tamed when I moved them into the aviary, and they did regress from that after the move. But, to be honest, some of that is just a reflection that I used to baby-sit them much more closely when they were out of the cage and I don't need to do that now. I kind of think if I made a commitment to go sit in their aviary for several hours a day they might start coming over to spend some time with me.

And, we are, in our own way, making progress. Mustrum has decided it's time to start training me. He comes over and holds onto the cage bars near where I sit, and I know that's my cue. They get their breakfast in stages, so if he comes over before I've served their seed course, that's his way of telling me they're ready for that. If they've already got their seeds, I bring in a few sunflower seeds or other treats. I expect he'll come up with a few other tricks he'd like me to learn - I hope he doesn't opt for "roll over" - getting up is hard on old knees. ;)

But, for me, the important thing is that I know my birds are much happier and healthier living in a bigger enclosure. They're so much more active than they were before. They've got a whole ropes course they traverse. They do their swoopies throughout the day and they are also flying all the time to get from their seagrass hammock to the dining room table to the platform where they watch me work, to the top of their travel cage back to the dining room table. And, if someone's in a bit of a mood, the other one has plenty of room to just be somewhere else.

Of course, some people are able to give their birds that freedom because they've got things set up so that the bird can be out of the cage with their person/people most of the day. An aviary certainly isn't the only way to give your birds space.
 
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