About Little Beaks
Little Beaks works to improve companion-bird welfare through practical education and evidence-informed advocacy, alongside lifelong care for the birds already here.
Our work has changed
Little Beaks grew through practical education, rescue and sanctuary care. We are now completely closed to new intakes. The birds already living here remain in lifelong care, while the public work increasingly focuses on helping people understand birds better and question practices that may not serve their welfare.
What we do now
The Little Beaks story
From the first birds needing help to a sanctuary and a wider voice for companion-bird welfare. Our story begins before our charity registration.
Some early events are remembered as a sequence rather than an exact date. Those milestones are labelled below.
· our published starting year
Small beginnings
Fiona Diggins grew up with budgies. A video about a rescued budgie prompted her to look for a bird needing help. One bird became a pair, then a small flock and an aviary in her parents’ backyard.
Alongside caring for birds, Fiona shared basic care information on Gumtree, hoping to reach people whose birds could benefit from better understanding.
Sources and date notesThe early years · exact dates not recorded
The original Little Beaks
Erika contacted Fiona through Gumtree about an unwell pet-shop budgie. Getting that bird to an avian vet began a friendship and the original Little Beaks group, focused on education and safe rehoming.
The group closed after roughly a year as other commitments intervened. The friendship continued: Erika cared for her own rescue flock, while Fiona went on to develop the sanctuary and advocacy organisation.
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Sharing sanctuary life on BirdCast
The podcast episode Little Beaks Aviary Tour and the dowel battle documented the sanctuary’s work and demand for help. Housing, companionship, diet and everyday care were already part of its public education.
Read the BirdCast episode description –
Formal charity registration
Little Beaks’ ABN became active on 7 January 2023. Charity registration took effect on 4 February 2023, formally recognising work that was already underway.
View the Australian Business Register history2024–2025 reporting period
Lifelong care and public education
The recorded work included housing, nutrition, enrichment and veterinary care, including support for birds with injuries, chronic conditions and age-related needs. Education about care, companionship and ethical rehoming continued alongside the sanctuary’s daily responsibilities.
Read the activity summary reproduced from ACNC data· remembering Buddy
A small bird with a lasting place in our story
Buddy arrived with a severely malformed leg. Supporters helped fund surgery, and after recovery he joined the special-needs flock. He died in 2025.
Our educational hub, Buddy’s Branch, was named partly in his memory. His story connects the care of an individual bird with our wider work in education and advocacy.
2025 marks Buddy’s death; the dates of his arrival and the hub’s launch are not established here.
Explore the learning resources inspired by this work-
Taking the conversation further
Fiona appeared on Squawk Global in The Global Cage: Unmasking the “Companion Bird” Industry with Little Beaks Sanctuary, discussing the sanctuary’s development, permanent care and welfare issues in the companion-bird trade.
Find the episode on Squawk Global September–October 2026
A new chapter, with the same responsibility
Little Beaks closed to new intakes, with lifelong care continuing for the birds already here. Public work increasingly focuses on education, advocacy and practical resources to help birds beyond the sanctuary.
Work on the new website brings care guidance, found-bird information and clearer help pathways together. Further tools, including an Australian companion-bird vet directory and an app, remain in development.
Explore our learning resources
Sources and date notes How this history was put together
Compiled on 6 October 2026 from Little Beaks’ published accounts, dated public records and founder-supplied updates. The early group’s dates, the transition to the later sanctuary and individual aviary construction dates are not established here.
- Little Beaks’ published homepage records 2015 as the starting year for its welfare work. This does not date each early rescue or the original group’s formation.
- The published origin story describes Fiona, Erika, Gumtree and the original group. It does not provide a year-by-year chronology.
- Dated podcast listings, the Australian Business Register and the ACNC-derived activity summary are linked beside their milestones. The podcast descriptions were checked; this timeline is not based on full audio transcripts.
- The latest intake closure and development plans reflect founder-supplied updates. Older public pages may still describe a temporary pause with emergency exceptions.
This is a history of selected milestones, not a complete rescue register. No resident totals or email-derived impact estimates have been added.
How we approach evidence Sources, experience and changing our minds
Research, professional guidance and experience can all be useful, but they are not interchangeable. Little Beaks labels sourced guidance, organisational positions and observations from experience where the distinction matters. When better evidence changes the picture, our resources should change too.