Cocaktoo Heaven

New Aviary environments under construction!
It’s been called “the loud room,” and for good reason. There is nothing louder than a bunch of attention-hungry cockatoos lined up in their separate cages. Your ears ring, your vision blurs, and you can’t hear yourself talk when those guys get going! But put a group of cockatoos in the same environment, and a miracle occurs. They become a flock—quiet, contented, and collaborative.
We’ve just completed constructing our first indoor aviary, a large 10’x5’x9’ enclosure. It takes up one entire wall of the “loud room,” and is home to four Moluccan cockatoos: Houdini, Sydney, Jeckle, and Lily. Cockatoo environments work best when they’re species-specific; we tested our gang by letting them spend time together on the same set of perches (see photo). It was a joy to watch them settle down to some serious banana eating in a cooperative group. Even when one of them swiped a bit of banana from another’s foot, there was no altercation!
The new aviary will feature playground-quality chips on the floor, hanging perches, trees to climb on and chew, and multiple food stations. We plan to put together two more aviaries in the room, one for umbrella cockatoos and the other for sulphur-crested.
In addition, when the Wisconsin weather turns warm, we’ll build some outdoor aviaries for the ‘toos to play in. Many of these birds—like the Moluccans—will never be adopted as pets, so it just makes sense to give them the best accommodations the sanctuary can provide to keep their lives happy and productive. It may save our eardrums, as well! Your donations will help us complete this worthwhile project much sooner.