Curious I went on google and found this:
Generated PTFE Fumes: A Silent Killer of Birds In Our Care
Without warning or visible vapor in homes, zoos, and wildlife rehabilitation facilities
Informed Action Can Prevent Tragic Deaths
PTFE coatings are sold under the trade names
Teflon, Silverstone, Fluoron, Supra, Excalibar, Greblon, Xylon, and others
From Coal Mines to Kitchens
On Saturday, November 12, 2000, Ron, the owner of eight pet birds, started the self-cleaning oven cycle in preparation for Thanksgiving dinner. His windows were open, in compliance with the oven directions. Two hours later, his son noticed that one of the birds was having trouble standing (all birds were located in a separate room off the kitchen). Four of the birds died quickly in Ron's hands before anything could be done. Opening more windows saved the other birds.
Microscopic lung findings were consistent with the inhalation of toxic chemical fumes. No warnings about release of a toxic gas were found in the oven's directions, but the source of the fumes was the oven's nonstick coating based on PTFE. Confirmed by a necropsy examination, these four pet bird fatalities resulted from normal operation of the cleaning cycle of this PTFE-coated oven (Ramelmeier & Davidson).
With their sensitive respiratory systems, birds have been used to protect us by detecting poison gas since early in the industrial age - the legendary canaries in the coal mines (and in the trenches of World War I) - frequently with lethal outcomes for the birds themselves. Now it is our turn to protect them from a modern hazard.
Those who care for birds need to know about Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) poisoning - the most commonly reported inhalant toxicity in avians (LaBonde).
Fatalities in birds have occurred when PTFE fumes are emitted by self-cleaning ovens, coated cookware, coated baking sheets, newly developed coated light bulbs, coated heat lamps, etc. In protecting birds, we may be protecting ourselves as well. Although much less vulnerable, people also have been poisoned by PTFE fumes (Lee).
Source: members.aol.com/rccouncil/ourpage/rccalert.htm