Bird's World (1912 Building)

July 16th, 2012.

Is this a swamp exhibit? What critters did they have in here?

It is a swamp exhibit but I did not make a species list for this building.

An excerpt from my 2012 review:

Aside from a very nice wattled crane aviary all of the birds in the zoo are located in one section. Bird’s World opened in 1912 (the same year as the zoo) and it was renovated in the 1970’s and seems to be hidden away off the main trail with many large trees in the neighbourhood. Indeed, on my visit there was no one in the building at all and only two other people in the general vicinity and to top it off there is even a large sign on the front entrance that states “Bird’s World is Open”. Around the building are exhibits for keas and kookaburras, along with arguably America’s ugliest and dirtiest Chilean flamingo pool. An absolutely massive Flight Cage (very similar to the grandiose and iconic aviary found at Saint Louis Zoo) is overgrown with ivy and its possibilities as a truly great aviary are unbelievably wasted. Instead of having a plethora of free-flying birds, visitors spend the entire time surrounded by thick black metal as they are the ones caged and what appears to be a single Andean condor has the entire structure to itself. What a colossal waste of space, although I suppose that if you are a fan of condors then it is perhaps the world’s largest aviary for that species.

Upon entering the historic structure of Bird’s World there is first a row of dusty, dirty, half-dilapidated terrariums that have these 6 species: Chilean rose hair tarantula, Brazilian cockroach, tailless whip scorpion, hissing cockroach, darkling beetle and vinegaroon. The building is then divided into 4 sections, with the first being the Swamp environment. This one is the best in terms of design, with probably a dozen trees sticking out of a muddy floor that even had a couple of turtles in the low water. A 3-foot glass wall is in place and the rest of the area is open-topped. Next up is the Rainforest zone and it is scarcely worth mentioning other than to say it is very tiny, has a crashing waterfall and is under maintenance. A couple of terrariums have walking sticks and blue-tongued lizards as one enters the decent Scrubland area, again with a 3-foot glass wall and an open-topped diorama. A small tawny frogmouth enclosure and the Riverbank zone complete the tour, with the Swamp/Scrubland combination standing out as the better sections.