SECTION TWO: THE PLANNING PHASE
The first thing to do in the planning phase is to make a simple line drawing of what you think you want to build. See layout drawing (right) for an example.

Things to consider carefully when making your layout:

As an example of the importance of sun exposure think about the nest box, you do not want the nest box to be unprotected on the west or southwest side of the habitat where the summer late afternoon sun will make it impossible to have birds nesting. (An advantage of a portable habitat is sun control is easier.) So you need to study the sun position at different times of the year to place the habitat in the best position. Also, you have to consider the location of the nest box within or outside of the habitat with the same logic in mind.

Ground drainage is important if you are going to use a wet system, which is the best way if you can. You don't want water pooling under your habitat and attracting insects and varmits. Its a good idea to grade in a slope if you don't have good draining soil.

Wind exposure is important winter and summer and so you need to consider the direction of your prevailing winds. We recommend using the cupola system whenever possible. This means the shelter is vertical so the wind can come from any direction and the parrots can still go up to get out of it when they want to.

Many parrots have been killed and maimed by having open wire bottoms on their flights where wild animals can access the bottom wire. They scare the birds until they fly around wildly and end up on the bottom where the animals grab their feet and chew them off and they either bleed to death or are permanently crippled. The tops should also be covered because wild birds and possums can get on the top and defecate and that can infect the birds with a variety of diseases.

Geographical disease profiling means you and your veterinarian should know what diseases are endemic to your area. For example, if you are in Australia and you do not have the disease called Sarcocystis then you do not have to consider it like we do in Florida where it runs rampant. If your veterinarian does not know what the local risks are you will have to educate him.

In planning the layout you need to decide if you need double access doors or not. Many birds have been lost because there was no double door protection and they just flew out when the habitat was being serviced. We use a double door system for any wild caught birds but tend not to use them with our own handfed breeders. However you cannot go wrong by using them and it gives you the flexibility of being able to use the habitat for anything in the future.

Another option in this planning phase is the tunnel between the play area and the secure area. It depends on the parrots that are living in the habitat. If they are tame and you want to keep them that way then its probably better to move them to the play area by hand in order to keep up the hands on contact with them. But if they are wild, fully flighted and you don't want to handle them then you can use the tunnel to open and close the access. Since you will only feed in the inside of the secure area its not a problem teaching them to move back and forth between areas. For this project I have opted not to install a tunnel since it will be used for Lola and Rico a tame pair of scarlet macaws.