Cage

Unfortunately when the bird is that close to the wire the simple answer is you can't. If the bird was further back place your lens hood on the wire and depending on the length of your lens you won't see the wire unless the sun is on it. I normally find 250mm a safe distance.
 
This pic would work in black and white, the cage would become a statement.
 
If the subject is further away from the cage you can manually focus on the subject and the cage will seem do disappear as it goes out of focus. You will end up with faint lines running across the image though. I had what looked like a smudge on a couple of photos of a bird the other day and thought it was a sensor problem, but it turned out to be a very soft focussed twig running in front of the bird. While the subject is close to the object in front of it you can't do much about it, apart from try and make it a feature.
 
This is an example of the sort of thing modchild described:

 
You don't necessarily need to focus through the wire, the photo below was with the hood resting against the wire using my hands as support, centre spot on the eye and using auto focus...

IMG_8100.jpg
 
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Thanks Eric, that's exactly what I was trying to describe, and yes Ryan it's so much easier if you can get close to the fence to focus through a gap. It's very difficult with other animals like lions and tigers at a zoo which normally have multiple fences to not only protect the animal but the visitor as well.

Well done you guys, they arre both stunning photos of birds in captivity. I went to a bird sanctuary a while back and you could get some great photos because the birds were tethered on perches with no fences.
 
Getting as close as possible to the mesh is definitely the way to go. With my 100-400 I can sometimes get shots with no trace of the mesh at all if I can have the lens right up against the cage.

But if you really want nice shots of captive birds, going to a falconry centre that does displays is excellent. I've had a great time at the The Cotswold Falconry Centre in Batsford arboretum, they do shows where they fly and display various birds. It's not aimed at photographers, but it's a great opportunity to take some photos in settings others than enclosures.


Eagle owl (captive) by adamhawtin2, on Flickr

A lot of places also do some dedicated photography shows where they perch the birds in nice places for photographers (or allow you to suggest the places with best backgrounds/light), but they are run less frequently and cost more.
 
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