From: Michelle.Waddle@newcastle.ac.uk
To: Color and Vision Network <cvnet@lawton.ewind.com>
Subject: Re: lighting for an indoor aviary
As requesed by Peter Howarth, and to anyone else whom this information may
be of help or interest, here's all the advice I was posted in answer to my
lighting problem.
I have two suggestions for further information:
Post this note on the Animal Behviour network (ABSNET).
Send this query to British and American zoo associations. They have
a lot of practical knowledge of best conditions for keeping birds
healthy.
I have one thing to say which I haven't published yet (and am not
sure where to publish it). I highly recommend using both incandescent
and fluorescent lights together, and never use fluorescent lights
by themselves. As you probably know, they flicker (50HZ in the uk,
and 60HZ in North America). This is faster than most humans notice,
but birds would certainly percieve it. When I raise guppies (fish!) under
fluorescent lights alone, their behaviour in certain psychophysics
experiments (such as the optomotor response) become erratic, but when
they are raised under natural light, or incandescent light, then their
behaviour is consistent and clear. Even a few weeks under fluorescent
lights causes problems--presumably some higher order physiological
adaptation to flicker. Mixing fluorescent and incandescent lamps
reduces the flicker.
I mimic daylight by using a mixture of lamps, and the ones I like best
are used by plant physiologists to mimic daylight (including UV) in
growth chambers. So for pure practicality, see your local Plant Physiologist!
I've found them incredibly helpful for all mannar of things involving
light.
UV will not be much of a problem for birds found on the forest floor
in tropical localities, or temperate forests with a closed canopy, but
birds characteristic of woodland (or forest with open/broken canopy) will
have much more UV and this should be mimicked in the aviary. Plant
physiologists can lend you a spectroradiometer to measure the ambient
light spectrum and make sure that you have constructed the right
combination, which is relatively simple with the special lamps that
plant physiologists use (they don't flicker either!).
with best wishes,
John A. Endler
Michelle,
You might contact Meredith West at Indiana University (Psychology Department).
Meredith and her husband, Drew King, have been raising birds in aviaries for
about the last 30 years and either could advise you or would know someone who
could, I think.
Their interest is in bird song development in cowbirds, a parasitic brooding
species, so they have reared their babies in isolation boxes for extended
periods.
I think they may also have raised starlings at one time or another
(you may know their American Scientist article on "Mozart's starling," or some
such title).
Hope this is helpful.
Best regards,
Pat Cabe
I saw your message on CVNet and thought I'd offer what little advice I
can. I made some comparative spectral measurements when I was at
Indiana University, and based on those measurements I'd suggest that
you can do a reasonably good job of getting what you want with a
full-spectrum fluourescent bulb. I tested bulbs made by VitaLite (I
think that's how the trademarked name is spelled anyways) and found
them to be much better than Tungsten filament or standard fluorescent
bulbs. They're not perfect mimics of daytime spectra, mind you, but
they should provide you with the sort of UV you want. If you go this
route you will probably want to make sure that you don't have any
filters between the bulbs and the birds. The diffusers that they put
on the fluorescent lights in the IU biology department strongly
absorbed UV, so they'd defeat the purpose of the full-spectrum bulbs
if you used anything like them. If you can't measure the transmission
properties of something then it's probably safest to assume that it
will absorb UV light (unless you're using the material for protection
-- then the stuff probably transmits everything :-)
If you're really concerned about the visual worlds of the animals then
you'd also want to have natural objects in the aviary and not just
plain white walls. Starlings are all over the place, though, so I
don't know exactly what might constitute an "ordinary" environment for
one.
In any case, if you want to see some of the data I collected you can
look at:
http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/~mrowe/irradcomp.html
and:
http://www.cisab.indiana.edu/~mrowe/vitaeval.html
The text in those files was written for other people, so you won't
find all of it helpful for your specific purposes. Anyhoo, if you
look at that data and have any questions about it (or anything I've
said here) feel free to ask.
-- Mickey Rowe (rowe@psych.ucsb.edu)In response to your inquiry directed to CVNET, you might gain useful information from The National Aviary in Pittsburgh (USA). Their web site is found at
Email to the curator of birds, James Mejeur, may be addressed to
-- Peter L. Carras
You should check some of the papers by J.F.W. Nuboer. He did work himself (with Vos and Coemans and others) on Pigeons, Daw and chicken, and I'm sure he discusses the work of others on other birds in his papers.
good luck
Eli
Hi Michelle,
I just saw John Endler's message on CVNet and thought I might give you another contact. Roger Hangarter is a plant physiologist (and another nice guy) in the IU Biology department:
If you want to take John's suggestion, Roger would be a decent person to contact.
Mickey
Best wishes Michelle Waddle
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