how do your birds react to the hot weather?

[pollyparrot]

I'm curious to know whether certain species have a harder time with the hot, humid summer days. Please respond by sharing how your parrots react to the heat. We live in New York and the recent temprature has been effectively 90+ with high humidity. My timneh hates the hotter weather and I joke that he must have been hatched in a refrigerator. He sits in a corner, half-asleep for most of the day and I end up wondering if he's feeling okay. He only perks up after the AC goes on and has cooled the room down. On the other hand, my senegal seems more tolerant.

[Michael]

I live in NYC. I stick my birds outside any day of the week when it's hot. I run the AC mainly for me, not for them. I leave them a bowl of water in case they want a drink or to take a bath. When it's insanely hot, I'll mist them from a hose every few hours. They just sit there and relax. They get really mellow. They usually don't want to fly at the park when it's over 90. Just watch that the bird isn't panting from heat, if it is, take it to a cooler place or mist it with water.

[Pajarita]

Timnehs don't tolerate heat as well as other species. They come from Sierra Leone, Mali and Guinea-Bissau where the temperatures don't vary too much and are around 75 to 80 degrees all year round so yes, he would be uncomfortable in this weather (I live in Northern New Jersey and it has been murder!). My birdroom is naturally cool (and a bother to keep properly heated in winter) so what I've been doing is turn off the light mid-morning and leave just the natural light coming in from the windows and keep two fans on 24/7, one on the top of a window sucking the hot air out and the other in the other window but on the bottom and blowing air in. The other two parts of the windows are open with screens on and this creates a very nice draft that keeps the entire room cool all day long. And, of course, big bowls for water for bathing are necessary and you can also give them a good spray right after breakfast. If you are going to do this, make sure the fans are the ones that have very narrow openings in a grid made of plastic (not the wire kind) and that the cords are covered (I use towels on top of them and cover the towels with alfalfa or wood shavings -as well as the rest of the floor- so the birds would not lift them).

[Michael]

That is nonsense. Have you ever been to Sierra Leone, Mali and Guinea-Bissau? I've been to all three. It's just as hot if not hotter than NYC in the summer. If the parrots there can handle it, our parrots here can handle it (as long as we provide shade and water).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freetown#Climate
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_City#Climate

The highest average temperature in NYC in July of 84.1F is about the lowest average high temperature in Sierra Leone while the year round average there is 86F. NYC will hit some higher record highs on occasion, but overall it's not as hot here as in West Africa.

The African Parrot species are adapted at handling it just fine. It's more a factor of what they are accustomed to at home and not making rapid changes rather than the species adaptation. Don't stick a housebird accustomed to air conditioning outside on a record hot day. However, if you don't use AC or the bird is used to going out, they're fine outside even on the record hottest days (as long as shade/water are available). I don't remember pulling my parrots inside from the aviary or not putting them out cause of it being too hot in NYC.