Interesting that already there are conflicting answers. Precisely why I asked in such a candid manner. I assumed beforehand that it largely depended on frequency and proximity, as with any pollutant effect on any creature. I certainly donāt plan on spraying Febreeze in the birdās face or soaking their toys in bleach, I just wanted to get a better idea of what kind of limits to establish.
Hi, I got my birds about a year ago. I am chiming in to tell you that over the last couple decades air fresheners have gotten WAY more deadly than they used to be.
How am I so certain? Well I had very little problem bird-proofing my home due to my Own asthma. Several years after Febreeze came out, which I had originally found makes a room Smell like fresh, lovely breathable air but in fact then I canNot breathe -- and oh my gosh once it's on somethin--I had to throw everything away or wind up hospitalized!-- well several years after that they started sneaking Febreeze or some other chemical equivalents into more and more products. Even laundry soap. Even some laundry soaps that are un-scented!!
Well of course to clean your home you do need cleaning products. So trial and errors I did find various ones I could tolerate, though not always. And it got more difficult over the last few years. As I said, chemicals that work like Febreeze keep finding there way into more and more products.
Additionally, as people smoke less and less, people feel greater need to mask the normal living odors which in previous decades were covered up by the scent of old second-hand smoke. The scented products -- even pure essential oils, much less the essential oils incorporated into other compounds so they can still be called "natural," "green" etc -- have Never been tested for harm in the ways that cigarettes were. How does anyone know whether the fragrances in most homes now aren't doing more harm than the smoke used to? It has Never been compared!
When I got my birds I went to vinegar-based cleaning and found it is (1) way way Less Expensive to make your own vinegar solution (2) it cleans better (3) once rinsed away with water, vinegar leaves behind NO odor, only Actual freshness instead of Febreeze's un-breathable fake freshness. You won't need candles or air fresheners if you clean with vinegar. (If you don't like vinegar I think lemon juice works pretty much the same, and then you have a nice, actual lemony smell. Instead of fake-lemon!)
(Also-- as an aside -- there are many cases you might not even need vinegar or lemon. It's marketing that makes people think they always have to clean with chemicals. Not to say that some disinfecting isn't necessary, but really, an awful lot of products which marketers have taught us to consider essential, are completely Un-necessary to live a perfectly normal and Healthy life. Good hot tap water works really well for lots of things, such as most mopping of floors, most wiping of counters & surfaces, & etc.)
Anyways. I am just writing this little tirade to tell you, as one Human to another, anything that is not safe for birds, is really Not Safe for Humans either. Does something potentially kill birds? Is it on that list? Well if so--you know the phrase, "Canary In A Coal Mine," right? If not, look it up. Sad for those birdies, but, back then people knew that if something in the air might kill a bird, then the Humans better take warning and get out themselves!
