Although it is large and opens like an umbrella as advertised, the net is shallow. It has a wide surface, but the depth is so short only about six inches that it is unlikely to catch and hold a small bird like a parakeet or finch. Plus there are large round holes in the netting that will not work for small birds. It has not worked at all as I hoped. It might work for a large bird like a pigeon or a parrot or cockatoo. It is useless for small flight birds though. I am making my own net to catch my birds with when I need to. I am buying wedding veil netting that will trail over two feet into a cone shape to hold the birds. I will try to use the same frame itself, but with a deeper longer cone shaped net. It should hold the birds long enough to handle them and to safely return my birds to their cages.

The net is larger than described. Before ordering it, I measured my backpack to make sure it would fit inside. I assumed that, in collapsed form, it would be 19" like the description says, but this does not include the collapsed net portion, only the handle. My backpack can be zipped shut with something 19" long inside, but this net sticks out about 5 inches from my bag. Very Unfortunate, as this was the main reason I bought a collapsible net. Also, upon opening the package, I found that one of the two aluminum pieces forming the net was bent about 25-30 degrees. I won't begin to speculate whose fault this is, as it could've happened anywhere along the way. But, it certainly doesn't say much for the durability of the net. Besides these issues, it's a pretty nice net. It's not quite what I ordered, but it gets the job done. I think the best way to describe my feeling is, it's just nice enough for me to deal with the issues, and not return it.