The Skinny on Air Purifiers for Birds

Last Updated on October 3, 2023 by Mitch Rezman

Your science lesson for today is a brief refresher on how birds breathe. When you and I breathe, air flows in AND out of our lungs. Air sacs in a bird’s chest allow air to flow one way through the lungs.

Mother Nature provided benefits to using this unidirectional airflow. The first benefit is air moving through a birds lungs, is mainly fresh air which means it has a higher oxygen content.

Air Purifiers for Birds and Parrots – What Should I Look For?

The second reason is if birds had bi-directional airflow through their lungs they would rise and fall as they flew much like a submarine taking on and releasing ballast to submerge and surface.

Trick question? How do you remove radioactive particles from the air? HEPA: High Efficiency Particulate Air (HEPA) filtration systems. I would’ve never thought of it not been recommended by the Atomic Energy Commission.

HEPA is used in space craft and hospitals and throughout various industries. They are actually capable of removing close to 99.9994% of particles down to .3 microns in size (about 1/25,000 of an inch!) from the air you would you birds breathe. Viruses and bacteria move around on the backs of dust particles which is a really good reason to have an air purifier.

As bird keepers we remove things like Teflon and tobacco smoke from our homes. We know not to expose our birds to any noxious fumes, but it’s been a long winter. When was the last time you opened your windows for some fresh air. Do you live in a major metropolitan area? What’s your overall air quality?

written by mitch rezman
approved by catherine tobsing