Giant bird aviaries!

Giant bird aviaries!
08-07-2009

What giant aviaries you know and which birds are kept in them?

They seem to be more and more of these. I wonder if the mesh got cheaper or zoos learned to use thinner nets?

08-07-2009

If this Australian company's aviary netting (which it says would be suitable for all birds including parrots, would welcome comments on this) suggests that large aviaries shouldn't be *that* expensive to build:
Bird aviary netting fruit tree nets hail netting

A hectare worth of netting costs $8,800.

In Australia, I can think of large scale flight aviaries at Melbourne (Great Flight Aviary), Healesville (lyrebird forest aviary), Taronga (Creatures of the Wollemi), Australia Zoo (which has a rainforest-oriented flight aviary) and Wagga Wagga (where the aviary is the top feature of the small council-run 'zoo', which also has a few native animals and deer).

As for species - all of these are variations of mixed-species Australian themes. Taronga, Healesville and Australia Zoo all focus on particular habitats or biomes. Wagga Wagga I think is more generic and I'm not sure whether it's limited to Australian species. The Great Flight Aviary (the one I know best) has three sections - 'rainforest', 'wetlands' and 'bush'. Species include (not a complete list):
- Southern Cassowary
- Brolga
- Major Mitchell's Cockatoo
- Red-tailed Black Cockatoo
- Eclectus Parrot
- Pied Imperial Pigeon
- Little Pied Cormorant
- Royal Spoonbill
- Glossy Ibis
- Black-winged Stilt
- Blue-billed Duck
- Freckled Duck
- Australian Shelduck (or possibly Radjah Shelduck)
- Apostlebird
- Satin Bowerbird

There are definitely a few more species, but they're the ones I can think of off the top of my head.

08-07-2009

I've seen quite a few big aviaries, but the term "giant" is still quite personal. I also can't remember all the species i've seen in them...

Amsterdam (not walk-through):
3 types of vultures

Emmen:
Among others: flamingo's, boat-billed herons, red ibis, roseate spoonbill, chaco-chacalaca, inca-terns, some duck species...

Walsrode:
Among others: secretary bird, roseate spoonbill, hammerkop, a few more i can't remember and those quirky Montezuma oropendola's.

Also quite large i've seen:
Blijdorp: Asiatic aviary; ibisses, spoonbills, black storks, golden pheasants and a few more.

Hannover Zoo (not walk-through): Vulture aviary

Praha Zoo (not walk-through): Vulture aviary

Not seen but heared about:
Veldhoven (dutch parrot refuge): mostly african greys and cockatoos i believe

Blijdorp: New european aviary (although divided in two parts i believe)

Parc Paradisio: Giant Aviary; species list should be around somewhere... at least spoonbills and ibisses i believe.

08-07-2009

Chester has 2 very large aviarys. These are called Condor Cliffs and Europe on the Edge (both are converted bear enclosures).

Condor Cliffs is a mock cliff-face and is well planted and is home to Andean Condor and American Black Vulture. It can be viewed from the top of the cliff or at the base.

Europe on the Edge is a mixed species aviary featuring many varieties of birds from Europe. It has a stream flowing through it and a rock wall for nesting. As with condor cliffs it can be viewed from ground level or from a raised pathway. I can't remember the exact species list (perhaps one of the more bird-centric Chester visitors can help me here?) but they do have Eurasian Black Vulture and Bald Ibis in the aviary.

09-07-2009

Munich, Halle, Birds of Eden (South Africa), Singapore(Jurong Bird Park), Omaha(Simmons Aviary), San Diego, Beijing Bird Park...take a pick.

09-07-2009

Chester also has the pelican aviary and the new African aviary. No large birds in the African exhibit though and I *think* they're slowly stocking that particular attraction. The species I recall are a lilac-breasted roller, a hammerkop, a species of weaver-bird, a species of hornbill, a duck species and... one other one. Sorry I can't give specific species names at the moment, I'm going off the top of my head. I don't know if the African aviary qualifies as 'giant' but when taken in context with the size of its inhabitants, it's pretty sizeable.

09-07-2009

How big is the African aviary?

09-07-2009

I have no idea of a specific size, sorry. Plus I may have mentally exagerrated the scale of this particular aviary. Looking at my photos, it is certainly a large enclosure but not gigantic. The pelican and waterfowl is certainly quite sizeable however.

09-07-2009

What is there? I didn't know Beijing has a bird park.

09-07-2009

Another one in Australia is Currumbin Wildlife Park. I was only young when I visited so my mind may have exaggerated the size but it still seems like the biggest aviary I've ever seen. It has an Australian rainforest theme but wasn't teaming with birds if I remember correctly.

09-07-2009

I don't knwo all the species but two notable aviaries are Simmons Aviary (4acres, no kidding here) at Henry Doorly Zoo and the Outdoor Flight Cage (Far from a cage, 90 ft high and enormously wide) at National Zoo

10-07-2009

Flamingo Valley and Vulture Venue at Longleat Safari Park are two certainly very large aviaries, they even claim that the former is the largest of it's kind in Europe. Flamingo Valley centres round a reed lake and houses Chilean Flamingoes, Sacred Ibis, African Spoonbills and Whistling Ducks, and Vulture Venue is a flight avairy containing several dead oak trees, housing a dozen or so African White-Backed Vultures.

The Snowdon Avairy at London Zoo is also a massive structure, listed Grade II (I think) and is a historical landmark within the zoo.

13-07-2009

My favorite larger aviary is one that I can guarantee 95% of this site has never seen: the Queens Zoo aviary. The actual aviary has a historical background as it was designed for the 1964 World’s Fair in Flushing Meadows park. The aviary is not as large as perhaps aviaries at San Diego--surely--(I have never been out west so I cannot gauge) but they make good use of their space. The exhibit easily has 20 - 30 bird species and houses the zoos porcupine. What the zoo does perhaps most coyly is make grand use of their space by having a large spiral slope in the exhibit that spirals to the top and then back down in a different manner. You get to see the bottom and top of the exhibit in multiple places. Housing castle egrets, ducks and multiple other types of birds...the experience gives a true birding feel.

Two looks of the size of the aviary:
View one from Malayantapir
View two from myself

17-07-2009

I haven't seen it myself, but what about the 1904 flight aviary at the St. Louis Zoo?

The Birds of Eden aviary mentioned earlier apparently houses mainly parrots, cranes etc but also some South African species not in any other zoo collections. I believe it's a few acres as well.

San Diego Zoo also has some very large aviaries.