Aussie Finch Forum

double wire, keep them apart with a small piece of dowling rod on all 4 corners and one piece in the middle,has always worked for me with no losses from these bludgers.

Nobody's suggested growing flowering creepers over the aviary - works a treat for me and easy to trim / throw back over when they start falling over the edge, as they inevitably do. The butcher birds seem to need to land on the top 'for a look' before they start banging away at the sides and scaring the birds; slash cut a bfpf open once, which soon died and garroted a yf star. I did put black 6mm vermin mesh all over which stopped the deaths, but it was the establishment of the creepers that stopped the routine scaring. I thought when they couldn't get a feed that would sort it, but there is something mesmerising that makes striking at the wire something they like doing - sport for bb's?

Edit: Just adding a pic; not got all the natives completely fooled yet, but it is months since have even seen a bb, when they used to be quite frequent. The bb's used to hit the top panel (where the birds can get undercover) which is well grown over now; still a bit sparse around the lower 'viewing rooms', but getting there. First time for the cockies (that I know of) to visit - took their pic then shoo'd them off!

Yes cockatoos will land on top of your aviary and scare your finches. They are more curious than menacing though, the ones that come to my zebbies just have a poke around and leave. They don't even land on the cage.

I had a butcher bird problem and tried a super soaker water pistol, but had to resort to the sling shot . . . it doesn’t kill but stings . . . they are smart birds and have never came back.
The kookaburras never swoop the finches.

We have a good size dog that keeps aggressive birds out of our back garden. We have no possum problems thanks to him too.