Hi all.

Are there any birds that can be kept easily in the back garden? Walking around during the day, but I'd guess kept in a coop or cage at night for protection against predators.

As far as we can see, the problems are things such as foxes, birds flying away, birds being too big for a reasonable garden or too noisy and would disturb neighbours.

Are there any flightless birds, or extremely unlikely to fly away, can be kept safe from foxes and other dangers.

Our next door neighbour has chickens, and they seem to work OK. They're very tame too, though I haven't seen them climbing into people's laps as with some guineafowl I've seen online. I don't know if the chicken's wings are clipped or if they just won't fly over the fences.

Things we've thought about include Quail (too small/delicate, fly too well?), Himalayan Monal (very pretty, bigger, but still not fox-proof), Chickens, Ducks, various pheasants etc.

Health warning: We're not planning on any new pets soon, and I'm thinking that it would be perhaps unfeeling to mention how elderly our cat is and certain inevitable things. Also, we strongly suspect that a rabbit is the "right" pet for us. But, I'm just the kind of person who likes to think carefully about things a long way ahead, consider options, etc.

Given that, any advice/info/random chat?

Here are some Birds: make your choice..
1)- Chickens:
Chickens are easy to keep and don't demand A LOT of attention, the breed is also an issue... Some breeds are colorful, some are small and some are more protective than others.. And some are more flighty than others ( heavy breeds don't fly as high as others but heavy breeds tend to be more broody)

2)-Guineafowls:
Very interesting birds which are good at controlling insects, mice and other small animals like lizards, But their only drawback is their extremely loud calls, and ones they get nervous or frightened they get almost impossible to control! But guinea fowls make great watch dogs and send out loud calls if anything unusual occurs ( good for keeping an eye out on foxes). Guineafowls are great parents when it comes to protection and raising baby keets.

3)- Quails:
It depends on the species, some are easier to keep than others.. Quials don't do well at free ranging since they only walk and wonder around for food and if they got lost, well they'll try to live in this new condition but more likely they won't and they'll be an easy pick for predators like cats, birds of prey...etc. They do better in a large well secured aviary or cage. But they make good pets ones used to their new home.

4)- Ducks:
Domestic ducks don't fly at all ( except the Muscovy), since their weight doesn't support them at all. Ducks make good pets but rarely get tame enough to allow their owner to touch them, and they also are good at controlling pests like slugs and insects. Their drawbacks are that you need to change their drinking water very often since they sometimes mess up the water with mud and the water gets an ugly stinch and they poop a lot too.

Thanks.

With quail, we get sparrowhawks in the area, and we've even seen buzzards circling overhead. Hence quail walking around outside may be at considerable risk.

When you say that duck's drinking water has to be changed "very often", can you give me a rough estimate of how many times a day is "very often"? Can chlorinated water straight out of a tap be used, or must it be dechlorinated?

Ducks are lovely you could if you had space put in a small pool with island for them for them with a shelter /duck house also safer from foxes. my mate has 3 and the eggs are nice also . hers you can walk up to and they allow you to pick them up . Could if you havent the space use a plastic sand pit as a pool for them .

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With very often I mean you'll be reaplacing their water with new cleaner One about 3 or probably 5 times a day ( it depends on the number of ducks)... The more ducks you have the more work you'll have to do.
My ducks lived with tap water with no problems.