Organising your aviaries: who lives where, and why record it
An aviary is not just a place, it is the unit that decides which birds share space: it determines what breeds together and what becomes infected together, which makes it the first piece of information to keep current.
Two questions only the layout can answer
When a health problem appears, the first question is not “which bird” but “who was with it”. Without an up-to-date occupancy record, the answer is rebuilt from memory, and memory rounds things off.
When an unexpected clutch appears, the question is the same in reverse: who was in that aviary at the time of laying. One bird moved three weeks earlier and never recorded is enough to make a parentage inexplicable.
Both uses have one thing in common: they concern the past. A layout that only exists in the present, like a label on a door, answers neither.
Moving a bird, an ordinary act and a lost record
Moving a bird takes ten seconds and leaves no trace. It is the most frequent action in a collection and the least often written down.
Over a season, these unrecorded moves create blind spots: a bird you believe stayed paired when it spent a month in communal housing, an aviary you think you emptied before a treatment when two birds remained.
No software can guess these movements. What it can do is make recording them fast enough to happen as the bird is moved, rather than in the evening, once you no longer remember.
Capacity and overcrowding
Space requirements vary so much between species that no general figure would mean anything: a pair of canaries and a pair of large parakeets do not occupy the same volume, and recommendations differ between countries and federations.
What does apply everywhere is setting your own capacity per aviary and knowing when you exceed it. Overcrowding is rarely visible as it sets in; it is noticed later, through aggression and health problems.
What this changes in AviarySoft
Aviaries are laid out visually, and each bird is assigned to one. Occupancy is read at a glance against the capacity you defined for each, not against an imposed norm.
Movements stay attached to the birds: the question “who was with it” can be answered without reconstructing the season from memory.
How do I create an aviary?
There are several ways to create an aviary: 1) From the 'Aviaries' page, click the 'Add' button in the top-right corner of the header. 2) On mobile, use the floating (+) button at the bottom of the screen. 3) On desktop, drag a bird or pair to an empty spot on the board: a new aviary will be created automatically at that location. In all cases, name your aviary and choose a color from the 12 available options. You can also add notes.
How does the aviary board work?
On desktop, aviaries are displayed on a spatial board: each aviary is freely positioned and can be moved, resized and customized. You can zoom in, zoom out and pan across the board. On mobile, aviaries are displayed as a list.
How do I assign a bird or pair to an aviary?
On desktop, drag and drop the bird or pair from the left side panel (unassigned items) to the aviary of your choice. You can also assign an aviary by editing a bird's or pair's record. On mobile, use the action menu to choose the aviary.
What happens when I assign a pair to an aviary?
All the pair's birds are automatically moved to the same aviary. This ensures the breeders stay physically together.
Can I customize the appearance of my aviaries?
Yes, each aviary has a customizable color (12 colors available), and you can adjust its size and position on the board. You can also enable or disable hover animations.
How do I see what's inside an aviary?
Hover over an aviary on the board to see a preview of its occupants (species, breeds, gender). Click the expand button to open the detailed view listing all birds and pairs with their information.
How do I empty an aviary?
From an aviary's detailed view, use the 'Empty' button. All birds and pairs return to the 'Unassigned' section without being deleted.
How do I delete an aviary?
From the aviary's action buttons on the board. If the aviary contains birds or pairs, they are automatically removed and returned to unassigned before deletion. Birds and pairs are never deleted.
Can I hide certain aviaries from the board?
Yes, a visibility menu lets you hide or show each aviary individually. You can also show all or hide all in one click. Hidden aviaries remain accessible in the list.
How do I find my unassigned birds and pairs?
On desktop, the left side panel of the board lists all birds and pairs without an assigned aviary. You can search by name or ring number. On mobile, a dedicated section displays them below the aviaries.
Can I add health monitoring for an entire aviary?
Yes, from the Health page you can create monitoring assigned to an aviary. This is useful for recording a treatment or disinfection applied to an entire housing unit.