The standard: a stranger could run the day
Bird sitting instructions are detailed enough when a capable person who has never met your bird could get through a full day, in the right order, without phoning you to ask what anything means. Birds hide gaps in care badly: a missed water change, the wrong food offered because the right one was described vaguely, or a cage left uncovered under bright light until midnight all show up as stress, noise, or illness days later. Write for the sitter you hope never has to improvise, and assume they know dogs and cats but nothing about beaks, crops, or why the kitchen suddenly matters.
Food, water, and the daily rhythm in plain specifics
List exactly what your bird eats each day in terms a non-bird person can match by sight: which food goes in which dish, roughly how much the dish should hold, which fresh foods are offered and which household foods are never offered at all, including avocado, chocolate, and anything cooked with sprays or strong fumes nearby. State when water is changed and that the dish is washed, not just topped up. Then give the rhythm around it: when covers come off, when lights go out, how long the bird is usually out of the cage, whether it steps up willingly, and what bedtime behaviour looks like, because a sitter who knows the routine can spot the day it breaks.
Safety rules a sitter would never guess
Write down the bird-specific hazards plainly, because none of them are obvious: no cooking with overheated non-stick pans while the bird is in the home's shared air, no aerosol sprays or scented candles, ceiling fans off before the cage door opens, doors and windows checked, toilet lids down, and no other pets in the room during out-of-cage time. Cover handling honestly, too: whether the bird bites strangers, should be towelled only in an emergency, or is happier admired than held. A sitter warned in writing is a sitter who can relax, and a relaxed sitter makes for a calmer bird.
Cleaning, mess, and what normal looks like
Explain the daily cleaning you actually expect: tray liner changed, floor swept for seed, dishes washed hot, bath offered if that is your bird's habit. Crucially, describe your individual bird's normal: its usual noise level and best phrases, how much it normally eats, what its droppings normally look like, and its favourite foods and toys. That baseline is what lets a sitter notice the meaningful changes, such as a bird that stops eating, sits fluffed and silent at the cage bottom, breathes with an open beak or a tail bob, or produces droppings that change sharply, and know those are call-you-now signs, not wait-and-see signs.
Contacts, permissions, and the emergency path
Finish with the escalation path in order: your phone number and when you are unreachable, a backup person who knows the bird, your avian vet's name, address, and out-of-hours route, and written permission for the sitter to authorise emergency treatment in your absence, with how costs will be settled. Note where the carrier, spare food, and cleaning supplies live so nobody hunts through cupboards mid-crisis. Pulling all of this together in KinsLe's Care Pass hands your sitter temporary access to the bird's routine, key details, and contacts in one place for the trip, so nothing essential depends on a crumpled note on the fridge.