Where to Put a Bird Cage: Room by Room, from the Avian Vets

Room by room

Room	Verdict	Why, and who says
Living or family room	Best	Where the family is (PetMD); social birds (RSPCA); a wall to back onto and a view of the room
Kitchen	Never	PTFE fumes from non-stick pans, drip pans and appliances can kill a bird, sometimes at ordinary temperatures (VCA); smoke and cooking fumes (VCA); Merck and PetMD both say not the kitchen; see the bird toxins database
Open-plan kitchen and living room	Only with no PTFE in the house	VCA: the only reliable prevention is not using PTFE around birds; a wall between does not stop fumes
Laundry room	Never	Irons, ironing-board covers and heating elements with PTFE (VCA); fumes and heat
Bedroom	Good for sleep, poor for company	Dark and quiet for 10 to 14 hours (PetMD); a bird alone all day in a bedroom is isolated; a second, sleep cage is PetMD's answer
Home office	Good	Company all day; keep it off the desk edge and away from the printer's warm exhaust; a screen is not an overhead lamp
Sunroom or by a window	With care	Merck and PetMD: away from windows and drafts; sun through glass overheats a bird that cannot move away and supplies no UVB (Merck's nutrition page: owners wrongly assume glass-filtered sunlight gives UVB)
Garage, basement, hallway	No	PetMD: not the garage; fumes, cold, isolation, traffic
Bathroom	No	Open water (VCA), aerosols, humidity swings, isolation
Outdoors	Supervised, or in a proper aviary	RSPCA: shelter from wind, rain and sun, away from predators; the outdoor aviary guide covers wire and weather

Height

Dr. Latas puts the cage at about chest height. The practical version: the top perch at or a little below your eye level, so you look at the bird rather than down on it and it is not looking up at everything. A cage on the floor is at dog and toddler height; a cage above head height is a bird nobody interacts with. A stand with casters (most of the cages in our conure and grey guides have one) lets the cage move to the family in the day and to the quiet at night.

Walls and corners

One side against a wall (PetMD) gives the bird a side nothing approaches from; two, in a corner, gives a shy bird two. A cage in the middle of a room is approached from everywhere, and Dr. Latas says a bird under constant observation is stressed. The corner cages in the grey guide exist for this.

Windows, sun and drafts

Merck and PetMD both say away from windows and drafts. Sun through glass warms the cage and the bird cannot leave it; a window is also what hawks and cats are seen through (RSPCA: out of the sight of predators). Drafts come from windows, air conditioners (Merck), heating vents and doors; a candle flame held at the cage shows them. Glass supplies no UVB, so the window is not a substitute for the lighting question.

Noise and traffic

RSPCA: not in the busiest part of the house, protected from loud noise. PetMD: where the family is, and moved if the activity is stressful. The two agree more than they seem to: beside the sofa, not beside the front door or the television's speaker. A bird that sits fluffed or screams when a particular thing happens nearby is telling you where not to put the cage.

Other pets

VCA: never leave cats, dogs, ferrets, snakes or lizards alone with a bird; a cat scratch is an emergency. The cage goes where a cat cannot sit on top of it or reach a paw through, which usually means not beside a bookcase or a sofa back. RSPCA: out of the sight and sound of predators, which includes the house cat looking at it all day.

Fans, fumes and the things above

Ceiling fans off whenever the bird is out (VCA). No candles, aerosols, smoke or scented products in the bird's room (VCA). Not under a stucco or popcorn ceiling the bird can reach from the cage top (VCA), and not under the overhead light a bird perceives as a threat from above (PetMD).

Night

Ten to twelve hours of sleep, twelve to fourteen for some birds, in a dark, quiet room (PetMD). If the cage lives in the living room and the living room is lit until midnight, the bird is not sleeping; the answers are a sleep cage in a dark room (PetMD's two-cage suggestion) or a cover. On covers the sources split: Merck's owner page says most birds should not be covered at night; PetMD says cover the cage or put it in a dark room. Both want dark and quiet. Our reading: in a dark, quiet bedroom a cover adds nothing; in a bright, late room it is the tool that makes the night dark, and Prevue's breathable covers in the supplies guide are made for that. A cover is never a reason to leave a bird in a noisy room.

Temperature

Merck: a comfortable room temperature, out of drafts. VCA's hazards page: never in a car in heat, and heat lamps are a PTFE source. A bird's room is heated and cooled like a person's; the cage is not placed beside the radiator, the vent or the air conditioner.

The one-sentence answer

Against a wall in the room the family uses, at chest height, out of the sun and the draft, nowhere a cat can reach, in a house where nothing non-stick is heated, with a dark, quiet place for the night. The safety checklist has the rest of the room; the setup guide has the cage.