Small passerines make up a large part of the global diversity of birds, but they are underrepresented in zoo collections, although many species are kept and bred by private hobbyists, especially estrildine finches commonly referred to as waxbills. It seems to me that as many seed eating species are quite compatible with each other, at least given sufficient space, a walk through exhibit similar to the ever-popular butterfly house might be quite a good display - are there any collections, especially in the UK, which have a reasonable number of species?
I agree with you. There a very few zoos which make any sort of a feature of these species. This partly because the very small species need a smaller mesh size for the aviary and they cannot be kept safely with many of the larger species. For example the Tsavo Aviary at Chester has a nice collection of medium sized species, but I don't think waxbills would be safe with the lilac-breasted rollers, von der Decken's hornbills and hammerkops: I have long thought that a smaller aviary beside the main one would give a much better impression of birdwatching in Africa as it could hold small flocks of waxbills, including firefinches and cordon bleu, with small mannikins and perhaps a pair of sunbirds and pin-tailed whydahs. I think that the nicest display I have seen recently is the small aviary beside the meerkats at Newquay. Here is the a photo of the sign board from 2014. Hayle has several of the small species too, including Bicheno's and diamond sparrows, spread around a few exhibits. Alan
