Photo by Jamieleigh Location: Saipan, MP Bonding with the AC: Rose Breasted Cockatoo "Bondi" 

Birds in the wild are very used to getting natural wind drafts. Especially after bathing your bird, it is important you don't put your bird in the line of a cold draft. This could make your bird very sick just like it would a kid or adult in the same situation. 

Drafts, in normal conditions, are not what cause your bird to get sick. It's the stress from not being able to get out of the draft that makes your bird get sick. Birds in outdoor aviaries or that stay in Florida rooms like mine, have to be able to get out of the line of wind if they want or need to. This keeps them content in their environment at all times. They can choose to sit in it (which my macaw and cockatoo do regularly while preening so all the dander is blown off with some help!) or they can get out of it and sit where it is not passing through.

If your bird is used to an exact room temperature and then you drastically change it or put him or her in front of the AC, you can bet you will have some problems. I like to keep it varied up for my birds for health reasons (ie: the Florida room). I don't want them to be suddenly stunned if I ever had to take them outside in colder weather from a house to a car and have them stressed out about it. I want them used to climate change and temperature change because they can handle more than we think. They were made to live outside and as we all know, outside doesn't stay a certain temperature all the time.

As a personal rule, I don't let my Florida room get below 50 degrees in the winter months. That's just where my own comfort level is although I know some owners who keep their birds in outside aviaries in the snow (32 degrees usually). Maybe I will be telling a similiar story (with a lot more research done) when I move away from Florida to the northwest. I'll keep you posted on that one!

Article by Jamieleigh Womach. She has been working with parrots and toucans since the age of 17. She isn’t homeless but is home less than she prefers to be. She travels the world with her husband, daughter, and a flockful of parrots whom she shares the stage with.