International Feathered Friends
Enter the winged world of this aviary near the entrance to the Park and find yourself up close to a variety of feathered beauties. You might see a bearded barbet dart in front of you and vanish into the protective shelter of a broad-leafed plant. Overhead, wings disturb the air and your ears fill with chirps, cackles, and hoots, the sounds of flourishing avian life.
Some of the species here are rare in the wild and others are seldom seen in collections. There are no moats, no barriers. You could literally reach out and touch the birds if they would let you. But they won’t! Step too close and they nimbly hop away or flutter to an inaccessible branch. Nonetheless, you are closer to them than would be possible in the shadows of a forest. You are a guest in their enclosure!
Everything in the aviary is designed to approximate the birds’ natural turf—from the concrete footpath, poured in the color and texture of dried mud, to the rock outcroppings and waterfalls that spill into marshes, where black herons and African open-bill storks strut. Terrestrial, midlevel, and upper canopies of vegetation provide a variety of habitats for birds to nest and forage in. Each time you visit it’s likely that you’ll see something different!
