We keep getting requests concerning outdoor aviaries, more specifically about building your own permanent outdoor aviary. This is fine with me as I am also one of those that would like to have one for my birds. The problem that I have and many other people have as well is the cost of the materials needed to do the job. There are a variety of construction techniques that can be used to allow the use of some materials that I would not normally recommend such as using untreated cedar or redwood framing and placing the wire mesh on the inside to keep the bird from chewing up the frame.
The biggest expense and the one that is the most difficult to cut costs on is the wire mesh that is used. There are some places that just go ahead with using standard galvanized hardware cloth for these enclosures, but I can't honestly recommend doing this as the galvanized wire is then coated with zinc, which is a metal that is known to be toxic to our birds. Stainless steel hardware cloth is the only safe way to go as far as I am aware of, but it is expensive, and difficult for the homeowner to find.
Here are some links to sources of stainless steel hardware cloth in the USA.
http://www.argussteel.com/industrial-wi ... vices.html
http://www.louispage.com/welded-wire-me ... less-steel
http://www.directmetals.com/dm/wire.asp
The next possibility is to use an aluminum mesh or hardware cloth instead of stainless steel and here are a couple of suppliers for this material, but it is also expensive, but it ma be cheaper than the stainless steel mesh.
http://www.mcnichols.com/products/wire- ... /aluminum/
http://hooverfence.com/catalog/cpage94.htm
I am sure that there are several more suppliers online that you can locate and contact for further information so that you can compare their offerings for quality as well as pricing. I personally would not recommend using any other material at present due to how sensitive birds are to metals. If we had birds other than parrots there are any number of other products available that would work just fine and be much cheaper, but we have parrots and parrots chew on everything and some of them can bite through the best chain link fence available.
So much for the enclosure, at least the part of it that you can see and that will be exposed to the rigors of the weather. You still need to provide for shade and I think that you can use standard fiberglass panels or metal roofing for this as long as it is place above and outside of the Stainless steel or aluminum wire mesh that is the top of the wire enclosure. Yes the wire enclosure must surround the birds space completely, even on the floor unless you build your aviary on a concrete pad. This is to keep any burrowing animals from getting to your birds.
Well, I think that I have covered the basics that one needs to consider although I am sure that there will be some questions and I will do my best to answer them as they arise.