How to Build an Outdoor Aviary for Parrots

Making an aviary for a parrot is somewhere between a home and a cage. The aviary is a larger version -- wider and taller -- of a standard cage. The trick to creating a successful aviary for a parrot is to use appropriate wire mesh and a hard plastic floor panel to keep the bird from digging in the ground. Wire mesh is important because parrots are used to maintaining human contact and floor panels also prevent rodents from digging under the cage and crawling inside.

Things You'll Need

  • Work gloves
  • Dust mask
  • Safety glasses
  • 3-by-2-foot wire mesh frames, 4
  • 3-by-2-foot steel square poles, 4
  • Soldering gun
  • Solder
  • Wet sponge
  • Wire cutters
  • Small brass hinges, 2
  • Small chain, 2
  • Small lock, 2
  • Twine
  • Knife
  • Metal grinder
  • Hard plastic floor panel
  • 1/4-inch brackets
  • Drill
  • 3/8-inch screws
  • 1-inch-thick wood branch
  • Copper wire
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Instructions

    • 1

      Construct the frame. Ask an assistant to hold one wire mesh frame -- 2-mm thick with 25-mm mesh squares -- upright on a concrete floor. Make sure it measures 4-feet high. Position a square pole flush against one of the 4-foot ends. Ask your assistant to hold both pieces of material.

    • 2

      Solder the pole to the mesh. Heat a soldering gun. Rub solder wire on the solder tip. Wipe the tip clean with a wet sponge. Hold the soldering gun up to the top of the wire mesh. Place the tip of solder wire to the mesh frame to solder the frame to the pole. Continue down the entire length of the pole.

    • 3

      Build the rest of the frame in the same manner. You will end up with a three-dimensional 3-by-4-foot aviary.

    • 4

      Create a wire mesh door. Use wire cutters to clip -- at center -- a 2-foot-wide, 3-foot-high opening in one of the sides. Remove the 2-by-3 piece of mesh frame and use a metal grinder to dull each edge. Dull any existing shards on the frame itself as well. Re-attach the 2-by-3 piece with two brass hinges on the left side. Attach two small chains with small key locks on the opposite side. Attach keys to a piece of twine and hang on the door so they do not get lost.

    • 5

      Measure and cut a 1/8-inch-thick hard plastic floor and roof to the 3-by-4-foot dimensions. Attach the roof and floor with brackets and 3/8-inch screws. Connect a 1-inch-thick branch via brass wire to the roof to hang inside the aviary, if you desire.