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I was thinking of making an outdoor cage for soft-release of songbirds this summer... goodness knows I will have birds up to my eyeballs this year. The wildlife hospital where I volunteer has walk-in aviaries for soft release, but I was thinking more along the lines of a large tabletop cage that could be brought inside at night. Does anyone have suggestions for this? Made any of your own? Bought them somewhere (preferably not too expensive, as I am a poor unemployed college student)? Raccoon-proofing would not be a major concern, since (1) I have only seen raccoons in my yard once before and (2) the cage would be brought inside at night anyway. Thanks for your input!

The only cages we have made, are the walk in type...very large, certainly not portable...I cannot honestly believe that any sort of cage permitting good flight, would be sized small enough to take inside? I could be wrong...will let the others answer. Good luck, let me know what you come up with!!
Joker
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I started thinking of some other possibilities, and how I could make use of vertical space... keeping in mind I'd like the cage to be foldable or collapsable for storage.

I came up with something that is different from anything else I've seen, but seems like it should work out. I know I should avoid using wire on a smallish cage as the birds could injure themselves on it... as an alternative, I could use cloth netting as is used on some of the small cages at the wildlife hospital. The cage I came up with would be about as tall as me, maybe 4x4 feet wide/deep. I would use two rectangular wooden frames, with the netting wrapped around them. The cage could be tall and collapsable if I made it so the upper frame was suspended from something, and the lower frame would hold the netting down with it's own weight. Basically it would be a cage without side supports, and would be held up by hanging; I hope that description makes sense! I guess I need to sketch it out or something. Since it would not be raccoon-proof, the birds would be caught and kept in a small indoor cage at night.

So... how does that sound? Any other suggestions?

I certainly sounds like a step in the right direction. Being the questioning sort tho, I would think that catching them nightly would present some problems. First off, song birds are generally sensitive that I have seen, I would imagine this would be stressful for them to repeatedly be caught, and rereleased in the morning back into the enclosure. Secondly, what sort of door would you use to catch them? One that is a full panel type, would allow them to escape, one that would fit arm, but not much more, may not allow you to reach them? Perhaps you could build the same, but with narrowly spaced wood slats, which would allow air to move thru the cage, but not permit a raccoon to enter, and may elminate the need to bring the birds in nightly? It could still be something that would break down (hinges on the frames), but would provide more safety. Also keep in mind with the netting, that cats do hunt during daylight....so would it prevent a cat from entering? Keep thinking!!! Getting better

Joker
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