Popular on Patch: Nearly 100 Birds Live in La Grange Basement Aviary

Since 2005, Marty Dunne has run an enormous menagerie in his home basement, perennially expanding it and even giving tours and lessons to local schools.

For the Birds: Nearly 100 Live in La Grange Basement Aviary

Since 2005, Marty Dunne has run an enormous menagerie in his home basement, perennially expanding it and even giving tours and lessons to local schools.

When you descend into the Dunne family basement in La Grange you might be forgiven for thinking you were suddenly transported to Brookfield Zoo.  Some families use their basements for game rooms or storage space, and some families keep a bird or two in a cage. But at the Dunne residence, the basement itself is a birdcage—a sprawling exhibit with nearly 100 avian residents, filled with grass and countless birdhouses and separated from a sitting room by glass viewing panels.  Visitors can spot parrots, cockatiels, budgies, finches, doves, homing pigeons, canaries, peacocks, finches and even a few critters without wings: hairless guinea pigs, four tortoises and an angora/lionhead rabbit. Then there are the three jewels: the massive green …

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