Simon Degenhard has been watching, keeping, breeding, reading, and writing about and generally living and breathing birds for almost 4 decades. Simon’s love of our feathered friends was recognised from a young age and was encouraged and nurtured by his family, especially his late grandfather Roland, who spent many hours pointing out the native birdlife that was found on and around the family farm in Crystal Brook, South Australia.
Simon’s avicultural journey began in the Adelaide suburb of Campbelltown in the mid 1980’s, with the taming of a young Galah that was affectionately called Galahry, and yes, he knows that this name was not very original, but it was effective all the same! From that point on Simon was hooked and his life with birds rapidly progressed.
The next additions to the family were Peach-faced Lovebirds, which Simon quickly achieved breeding success with. He was thrilled with this early success and enjoyed taming the chicks, many of which were then passed on to various friends as pets; such was his enthusiasm for aviculture that he took every available opportunity to encourage as many friends as possible to give the hobby a go.
From here he progressed to numerous other species including Ring-necked Pheasants, domestic ducks, bantams, various native and foreign parrots, finches, softbills, pigeons and doves. Simon was told on many occasions by older experienced breeders that he should think about specialising, but as much as he could see their point, he couldn’t possibly choose just one group of birds, let alone one species to concentrate on!
Simon moved to Bellingen, on the mid-north coast of NSW, Australia in December 1994 and was immediately taken by the amazing native birdlife found throughout the region. This abundance of wild birdlife satisfied his desire to get back on the avicultural band wagon for the short term. A year or so later the first new aviary was erected and the aviculturist within came back out as if it had never left! He maintained a mixed collection throughout his high school years, and especially enjoyed hand rearing numerous Cockatiels and selling them to other Bellingen locals.
Upon finishing high school in 1999, Simon moved to Sydney to pursue work. This meant living without a bird collection for a while, but he stayed in the mix by attending bird club meetings and visiting other breeders as often as possible. Following the purchase of a property with his wife Telea, he quickly set about building aviaries and subsequently built up a mixed collection of both native and foreign parrots, cockatoos, native and foreign lorikeets, finches and softbills.
Backtracking a little – from the age of twelve, Simon’s enthusiasm compelled him to seek further knowledge by means of doing work experience at various wildlife parks and zoos. He started this with a stint at the Gorge Wildlife Park in the Adelaide hills back in 1993 and since then spent time at Currumbin Sanctuary on the Gold Coast, Featherdale Wildlife Park and Taronga Zoo in Sydney and Walsrode Bird Park in Germany.
Over the years Simon has been involved with numerous bird clubs including the Avicultural Society of South Australia, the Coffs Harbour Caged Bird Club, the Softbill and Native Pigeon Society of Australia, the Parrot Society of Australia (NSW) Inc., the Finch Society of Australia, The Northern Rivers Avicultural Society, and the Avicultural Society of NSW.
Simon’s writing career began in the early to mid 1990’s with articles that were published in bird club magazines. This love of writing about his feathered companions progressed further over the years and in the mid 2000’s he began writing regularly for Australian Aviary Life (AAL) magazine (later Aviarylife). This association with AAL led to Simon becoming Assistant Editor of the magazine and then co-owner in 2010. By 2012 Simon had taken over as sole-owner and Editor. In recent years Simon has also written numerous articles for various bird club magazines and overseas publications, as well as having been involved in book publishing. Recently Simon has taken on a new role back in the publishing space, that of Editor of Australian BirdKeeper magazine, a widely known and respected publication that is approaching 40 years in circulation.
Simon has travelled fairly extensively over the last 15 years and has made a point of visiting bird collections wherever possible, including facilities in England, Europe, Singapore, India, New Zealand, South and Central America, and the USA along with countless setups in Australia. He has also visited some of the world’s best bird parks including Walsrode (Germany), Loro Parque (Tenerife, Canary Islands), Bird World (England), Jurong Bird Park (Singapore) and Dallas World Aquarium (USA).
Over the past 10+ years Simon has turned his attention to the conservation of birds in a major way, supporting many projects through publicising them within the pages of Aviarylife, via his website and social media channels.
Simon’s passion for all things feathered is a major force within his life; his love for birds encompasses both aviculture and ornithological interests, with the long-term preservation of the world’s birdlife being at the top of his agenda.
