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Home > Birds > 7 DIY Bird Playground Plans You Can Build Today (With Pictures)

7 DIY Bird Playground Plans You Can Build Today (With Pictures)

Bird Playing Toy

Birds love having lots of perches to play on, and the proper playground can help transform your bird’s space into someplace that your bird loves. But playgrounds can get expensive, and they might not always suit your needs. A DIY bird playground is a great alternative. They can be much cheaper to build, and the options for customization are endless. You don’t need to have fancy tools or advanced woodworking skills either—many of the playgrounds on this list are simple and easy to build for complete beginners.

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The Top 7 DIY Bird Playground Plans

1. PVC Bird Play Gym by Flying Fig

Materials: ¾” PVC pipes, PVC coupling, caps, elbows, and tees, rope/twine, bird toys, zip ties (optional)
Tools: PVC cutter, scissors, glue, drill (optional)
Difficulty: Easy

This PVC Play Gym is a perfect option for a larger bird, although it could easily be customized to any size. This tutorial is very beginner-friendly, with a detailed material list and measurements that will help you know how to cut each length of pipe and lots of tips that will help you if you’ve never worked with PVC before. The video walkthrough is super simple and helps you get a useful base gym that can then be customized with toys, food bowls, and other fun additions for your bird to play with. She also gives two different ways to wrap the rope around the pipe for grips.


2. How to Make Bird Climbing Net by Bird Tricks

DIY Bird Climbing Net
Image By: birdtricksstore
Materials: Cotton or jute rope
Tools: Scissors
Difficulty: Easy

Climbing nets can be a fun challenge for birds. Whether hung from a ceiling like a hammock or stretched vertically to make a climbing wall, birds love to use these nets to play and move around inside their areas. Climbing nets are also one of the simplest bird playground structures to make because they require almost no tools, just some good quality rope, sharp scissors, and patience. We love this tutorial because it goes into a lot of detail on picking a good-quality, safe rope for your bird, as well as the actual construction techniques needed. A net like this works well as a standalone playground or as part of a larger bird project.


3. Laundry Rack Bird Gym by Pets DIYs

DIY Laundry Rack Bird Gym
Image By: Pets DIYs
Materials: Laundry rack, newspaper, ladders, hanging toys, zip ties
Tools: None needed
Difficulty: Easy

This tutorial is so easy it’s hard to even call it a tutorial. Repurposing a collapsible laundry rack for your bird’s gym seems like a no-brainer once you see it, and this clever idea hardly needs any dressing up to make it perfect. This gym is dressed up with some hanging toys and ladders that are tied in place, making it super easy to put together and change and update as needed. This would also provide a great jumping-off point for lots of other modifications, like wrapping the bars of the rack in rope or hanging a bird hammock to customize. If you’re looking for a low-cost play area for your bird and don’t have time to build a playground from scratch, this is exactly the pick for you.


4. PVC Pipe Perch by Einstein Parrot

DIY PVC Pipe Perch
Image By: Einstein Parrot
Materials: 1” PVC pipe and fittings, steel screws, four swivel wheels, PVC glue, baking sheet
Tools: Dremel tool, PVC cutter (or buy pre-cut), drill
Difficulty: Moderate

This detailed plan for a PVC pipe perch is perfect if you have a larger bird that needs a big perch. With lots of pictures and measurements, it’s easy for you to make your own version of this perch. This playground comes together easily with PVC pipes and glue, making it an easy project, but it does suggest using a Dremel tool to add texture to the pipes. This clever feature makes it easier for your bird to grip the pipes, but it does increase the complexity of the project just slightly.

Another genius feature is that the playground is built around an aluminum baking sheet that acts as a mess-catcher, making clean-up easy. We recommend putting together this project completely before going back and gluing it in place in case you need to make any changes or fix any mistakes along the way.


5. Budgie Bird Playground by Alen AxP

Materials: Wooden dowels and beams, square base, twine, screws and eye screws, mini clothespins, decorations, and toys
Tools: X-Acto knife, drill
Difficulty: Moderate to advanced

This exciting bird playground is a little more advanced, mainly because the instructions given are less detailed and more free-form. However, we love this playground because it is full of exciting ideas to help your birds explore and enjoy themselves. It also is full of great ideas for cheaper materials that you can use instead of store-bought toys to add interest—like wooden home décor and mini clothespins—that can really help you bring down the cost of the project.


6. Giant Bird Tree Stand by Bird Tricks

DIY Giant Bird Tree Stand
Image By: Bird Tricks
Materials: Bird-safe dead branches, 2x4x8 boards, 2.5-inch screws, 4-inch screws
Tools: Pressure washer, circular saw, pruning saw or branch cutter, clamps, level, sandpaper or sander
Difficulty: Moderate

Tree stands are expensive—and the bigger your bird, the more your wallet will hurt. This stand was made for under $25 using salvaged branches and a few basic tools. Although woodworking is needed for this project, it is overall a fairly simple and straightforward project. A little bit of DIY experience will go a long way in this project, which is much more intimidating than it looks. The detailed instructions help, too, with lots of tips for making the construction go smoothly and picking bird-safe materials and woods. The final tree is big, beautiful, and ready to be filled with all your bird’s favorite toys.


7. Table Parakeet Playground by Honeybee Hobbies

Materials: Plywood base, scrap wood, wood glue, dowels, rope, sandpaper
Tools: Dremel, drill, nail gun, sander
Difficulty: Advanced

This playground is built to stand on its own, with a sturdy wood base and four legs. It’s more professional than many of the others on this list, building something solid and long-lasting from scratch, so it’s best to attempt if you already have some woodworking experience under your belt. Although this project might not come together in an afternoon like some of the others on this list, the finished playground has a professional look and will last at least as long as a store-bought playground, if not longer.

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Conclusion

We hope that looking at all these ideas for bird playgrounds helps you feel confident in making your own. Whether you are making a simple gym from PVC and twine or spending a day in the woodshop to build a beautiful artificial tree, you can bring your feathered friend hours of joy. Seeing them exploring their new playground will make all the time you spend worth it.


Featured Image Credit: jaanasaksman, Pixabay

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