96-year-old Hamilton aviary looking for a new home for its 24 birds

The Hamilton Aviary, a bird sanctuary and education centre that has been in the city for nearly 100 years, is at risk of closing down.

Due to the deteriorating conditions of its building on 85 Oak Knoll Dr. in Westdale, the aviary has been asked by the city to leave by Christmas, aviary board director Tom Priestly told CBC Hamilton. 

The volunteer-run non-profit, housed in a building managed by the city, is hoping to find a new home in an existing building in Hamilton or on land where they could build one.

The aviary — Canada's oldest public aviary, according to the board — is currently home to 24 birds, including 18 parrots and six finches, most of which are rescues. 

But Priestly said it represents more than a sanctuary for birds — it's part of the city's "cultural heritage" and a benefit to residents, too.

"It's very therapeutic to interact with the parrots," he said.

Priestly has been volunteering at the aviary for more than 20 years, since he was in high school. It has been something that helped him, as a person diagnosed with autism, get the necessary skills to become a registered nurse, he said.

"The aviary was a safe space I could be myself with the birds without masking [behaviours some people with autism do to present themselves differently] and an opportunity to practice mindfulness," said Priestly.

"Birds have a lot to teach humans. They teach us about being good listeners. When we learn to understand what a bird is telling us through body language, we're learning how to interpret non-verbal communication."

A place to care for and learn about birds

For the birds, the aviary is a safe place, where some stay sometimes for many years. 

People also use the aviary as a resource to learn how to care for their own pet birds at home, said Levi Clemens, vice chair of the board.

"Some people don't realize they live for anywhere from, like, 40 to 100 years, depending on the species," he told CBC Hamilton during a recent visit to the aviary.

People also ask the aviary to take in their birds when they feel they can't care for them, for a variety of reasons, Priestly said. Some have also asked the aviary to take a bird when its owner passes away. The aviary has had to turn down such requests in recent years due to restrictions imposed by the city, according to Priestly. 

He also said teaching people about birds at the aviary is a good opportunity to raise awareness about endangered species and local environmental issues.

Future of aviary has been uncertain since the 90s

The recent notice from the city comes after years of a fluctuating relationship between the city, the aviary and the Royal Botanical Gardens, which owns the land where the aviary currently sits.

Priestly said the aviary was originally run at Dundurn Castle starting in 1927 until the 90s, when the birds had to be temporarily relocated to the east end of the city due to renovations.

Around that time, the aviary went from being run by the city's parks department to volunteers, due to budget cuts.

The birds never went back to Dundurn, however, and were relocated to their current location in Westdale in 1996.

"It's an old farmhouse that essentially must have been just basically a glorified tool shed, a small type of cottage house," said Priestly.

A plan from the early 2000s to move next to the Gage Park greenhouse was dropped a few years later, Priestly said — a decision he said aviary volunteers learned only through local media in 2014.   

"There's been a history of a lack of transparency from the City of Hamilton toward the treatment of the aviary," said Priestly.

Cynthia Graham, director of environmental services with the city, said in an email funding the building for the aviary in Gage Park "was not supported by council when the plan was presented in 2010."

She also said the city has told aviary it will have to leave its current location but said they haven't set a deadline as there's "no immediate risk to health and safety."

The city is expecting a staff report in September about the future of the aviary, she said.

"We would like to stress that the health and wellness of the birds within the aviary remains a top priority in order to determine a path forward," Graham told CBC Hamilton. 

"Friends of the Aviary remain the experts on the birds in the aviary and we hope there is a way to ensure it can continue to function for interested residents and visitors."