Anybody
who has ever kept birds will be all too familiar with the alarming thrashing
about of their charges which sometimes occurs at night. Racing out and
turning on an exterior light reveals a blind fury of birds crashing about in
the aviary, breasts heaving with fright, feathers ruffled and faces like
that of dingoes caught in a car's headlights.
If your cages happen to be side-by-side, the chances
are that group hysteria will result, with everybody joining in the melee.
And if you are silly enough to pick up a flashlight in your dash outside,
shining it into the aviaries will make the situation even worse.
Normal Split
Pied Cock
Rather, you
need to talk to them soothingly and quietly, urging them to calm down, and
eventually they will. And you hope that anyone who happened to be sitting on
eggs or chicks will return to their nest. And perhaps more importantly, that
no one was injured... or worse.
Night frights are fairly common and can be the result
any number of situations, including loud and sudden noises, car headlights,
cats, fireworks and, probably most often, from vermin in the form of
cockroaches and mice. Whatever the reason, night frights are a terrifying
ordeal for both bird and keeper, and they will happen.
You can help the situation by providing low wattage
lighting in your aviaries, which burns throughout the dark hours. Light will
not stop night fright completely but it does allow the birds to at least see
where and what it is they are crashing into. It will also allow sitting
parents to return to their nests.
To rig your aviaries with lighting would be a very
expensive exercise, but for those clever folks who invented plug-in garden
lighting systems. These are available from most hardware and chain stores
and cost around about $25 to $45, depending on how automatic you want your
system to be. We have found that path lights are best in full flights and
spotlights under suspendeds.
The light provided is very low and will not disturb
your birds' slumber, nor will it attract landing aircraft. It is cheap to
run and virtually maintenance free (though the odd bulb will need to be
replaced every now and then). More importantly, they are very safe and
weather resistant. Some models employ a light-sensitive switch that turns
the lights on at dusk and off at dawn, a great device for the forgetful
amongst us.
The kits consist of a number of path lights, a
transformer and several meters of low-voltage cable. The transformer plugs
directly into a 240v power point, the cable (2 strand) is attached to the
transformer, and the lights are positioned anywhere along the length of the
cable. The sensor is best positioned where it receives no artificial light,
as such would affect the 12v lights. Extra lights, cable and bulbs, etc,
will be available from the place of purchase.
Depending on the size of your cages, the lights should
be positioned far enough apart so that the light is shed fairly evenly. They
may be placed in the front or rear corner of the aviary or just outside the
wire, or underneath in the case of suspendeds. The cable should be run
efficiently from the 240v power source to the end of the line and should
also be buried to a depth of around 20 centimetres.
We have maintained such lights in our aviaries for a
long time now and (touch wood!!) have never, ever lost a bird due to night
fright, nor have we lost young chicks through parents being unable to see
their way back home after being rudely ejected from the nest.
True, we do still suffer the occasional flap at night,
but they are much reduced in intensity and duration ,with everyone back in
bed 10 minutes later none the worse for wear. And the birds don’t have bags
under their eyes--the light is subtle enough to allow them to sleep and rest
peacefully. Our neighbour once commented though, that he had noticed a group
of our birds huddled around a light late one night reading! Perhaps they
were.
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Anybody
who has ever kept birds will be all too familiar with the alarming thrashing
about of their charges which sometimes occurs at night. Racing out and
turning on an exterior light reveals a blind fury of birds crashing about in
the aviary, breasts heaving with fright, feathers ruffled and faces like
that of dingoes caught in a car's headlights.
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