I recently built a split outdoor flight pen to house two different species of quail; each side of the pen is about 12 feet long, 6 feet high and 4 feet wide with wire serving as the walls and ceiling and the grass/dirt ground serving as the pen's floor. (Click here for pictures). I'd like to plant a small evergreen tree in the left side of the pen (the side with the blue tray in the pics) to serve as a perch for the birds as well as to provide a more natural habitat for them/a more natural aesthetic for the pen and was hoping to get some ideas of what type of tree would be best suited for the job. Here are the requirements/preferences: -I'd rather not use a deciduous species as I'm assuming the quail would be tempted to eat off all the leaves -The tree has to be able to be trimmed back without significant damage once it begins to outgrow the confines of the pen -It has to be able to survive in partial shadow; the pen and the canopy of branches overhead keep the inside of the pen about half in sun and half in shadow throughout the day -I'm looking for something with sturdy branches that wouldn't immediately bend over once the birds try to perch on them -As far as size goes, narrow is better, and something around 2 feet wide and 5 - 6 feet tall would be ideal -I live in Maine, so it's got to be able to survive this climate I asked at a local nursery and was told that pine and spruce trees wouldn't be a good choice because one needs full sunlight and the other would die if I were to trim off the top once it vertically outgrows the pen (I forget which was which). They recommended Arborvitae, which looks good, but because of how dense and close together the branches are I don't know how well the birds would be able to perch on it...also, the branches don't appear to be terribly sturdy for holding up their weight. What else is there that would work in this situation? Any other info or advice in general would be appreciated as well. Thanks for reading!
Arborvitae will be open-growing when shaded much. Especially if you buy natural habit wild-type seedlings these are liable to be markedly more sparse than the popular compact forms such as 'Smaragd'. You can trim the outside lightly each summer to reduce annual size increase. This is also something you can probably obtain comparatively easily in a ready-to-go size, replace comparatively cheaply and easily when the time comes. Look for stock, perhaps field grown, that you can be assured does not come with persistent pesticide residues the birds might contact or fertilizer particles they might peck of of the root balls and swallow.
Grazing and bird droppings will likely kill any tree in an enclosure. At least that's a been my experience with domestic fowl.
Thanks for the advice; I ended up getting a "Thuja Occidentalis Nigra" Arborvitae tree on sale from a local nursery. The people at the nursery assured me none of their trees had any contact with pesticides and I can make sure all fertilizer particles are swept out/buried before the birds go in. However, I'm not so sure about using this tree now after reading on the following sites that it's toxic: http://www.tgpa.com/Plants.html http://www.busybirds.net/Toxic.html http://www.mnpoison.org/mnpoison/pdfs/PlantGuideJuly04.pdf http://www.stihl.com/isapi/knowhow/lexika/baumlexikon/baum.asp?baumnr=163 http://www.thebirdwhisperer.org/plants.pdf http://www.ohsu.edu/poison/documents/plantsVeryBad.pdf This one site has it listed on the "Bird Safe Trees" list, though: http://www.smallbirdrescue.org/plants.html Still, I'm a bit hesitant about using a tree listed as toxic in the pen, especially since the quail won't have much else besides dirt to peck at so I can imagine they might eat at the arborvitae out of hunger or boredom. Any input? Am I just worrying too much? The only evergreens that I've consistently found on the "safe" lists for birds/aviaries so far are Pine, Fir and Spruce. Would any type of pine, fir or spruce be suitable for this environment/meet the requirements? I was told by the people at the nursery that pine and spruce wouldn't work, but that was in reference to the specific type they had there so I'm not sure if it would apply to other types as well and I didn't ask about fir.
Thuja occidentalis is subject to heavy winter browsing by deer on some sites. According to Facciola, Cornucopia II (1998, Kampong Publications, Vista) the Ojibwe made a nice soup out of the young shoots, and the foliage is sometimes brewed into a fragrant tea.
