Bird House — Attraction in East Brunswick Township

APRIL 2025 UPDATE:

I'm amending my review from 5 stars to 2. This store has gone significantly downhill in the last couple of years. Bird are clean but less cared for. They're clearly stressed out and unhappy, with a few for sale even being outright aggressive due to how long they've been there. There are no toys in any of the cages. Sadly the worst conditions seem to be the owner's birds housed there-- Tonka the cockatoo used to be a beautiful bird that thrived on customer attention, but now her cage is plastered with signs saying anyone who touches her will be removed from the store. She's nearly plucked herself bald with stress, and her feather quality is atrocious. The two macaws aren't in much better condition but they had always had signs warning not to touch because they bite.

It's truly sad to see how a once lovely store has degraded. I suspect the owner doesn't care much for it anymore now that it's not as profitable as it was.

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OLD REVIEW 7 YEARS AGO: Beautiful store. Floors are clean, food isn't spoiled, toys aren't dusty or damaged. The birds are healthy, everyone had full food bowls and clean water, babies had a normal amount of soiled bedding for daily cleaning or so. All the birds had 2 or more toys in their cages and everyone had appropriate cage sizes, with some in slightly smaller cages that are housing birds going home with their owners very soon. The owner keeps her personal pet, Salem the pied crow, in the store; he's very friendly and worth...

My wife and I had decided to get a parrot and were scouting around for potential birds we like. We had initially considered adopting a parrot, but the agency had a very lengthy pre-process before we could even visit the location! Regardless we made our way doing to NJ from NYC and Bird House was one of the 3 places in the area we selected to visit.

The store is impressive, clean and orderly, with a slightly small selection of birds in store compared to other bird-only stores. However they are willing to procure a certain bird that you are interested in. My wife and I weren't fixed on any breed but rather were looking to learn about the birds and see if we could find one we felt attached to. While I understand that in such stores the attendants maybe not know every bird individually we were looking for some help in selecting a breed, however the person who dealt with us wasn't very helpful in the matter and was unable to guide us through choosing a bird. It felt like we just had to select from a list. It would have helped if we were provided information about different personalities of birds, their habits and so forth, since we were looking for one to keep in our apartment.

In the end I suppose it really depends on what you are going for and while we found the store to be well stocked and their eagerness to source a breed out for you impressive, we looked elsewhere towards stores that helped us narrow down our search based on our lifestyle...

I love going to the Bird House! You walk in and you're greeted by the chatter of baby birds all tucked together like they would be in the wild in their sweet little nesting areas, squawking and peeping their little heads out occasionally like little goofballs. It's adorable and lively and feels like you may have just found a jungle in East Brunswick. The owner, Lisa, is quite possibly the biggest animal lover I have ever met and clearly cares deeply about each bird (and guinea pig, bunny, hamster, and more!) in her store. (I also love getting to peek at the handful of larger birds in the back that call the store home. They are absolutely beautiful and majestic!) Personally, having had birds from chain stores in the past, there is a major difference in the temperament of these birds being handfed and handled with lots of love. I couldn't recommend the Bird House more highly if you're looking for a bird to love and spoil and make part of your family! (Or a friend of the fuzzier...