Not many zoos keep these wonderful birds. Jurong bird park in Singapore is probably the best zoological park in the world to see these birds. It has a lovely ringside view of the Birds of Paradise, all thanks to a 40m long treetop level walkway which offers a completely unobtrusive view of the birds since there are no wire mesh separating the visitor from the birds. Perfect for peering into Paradise. It was the first zoo to breed the 12 wired bird of Paradise and is the only zoo where you can observe the brilliant wilson’s bird of Paradise. Another good zoo for birds of paradise is San Diego. San diego zoo has the only Glossy mantled manucode outside of new guinea. There are also 2 female empress of Germany’s Bird of Paradise, 12 superb birds of Paradise and 3 magnificent birds of Paradise. There is a Successful Breeding program here and there are many methods of producing the most chicks possible. this is one of them. Each female Raggiana bird of paradise has her own aviary and the reigning male has his private quarters in the back. During the spring breeding season, the keeper opens a gate separating the male from one of the females. Once a single egg is laid, the access door is closed to the nesting female and a door is open for the male to the next female! This theory for breeding Raggiana Birds of Paradise has been extremely successful and used by other zoos to similar effect. But not all zoos keep breeding groups of these wonderful birds. Some may only have 1 male of a certain species and 3 of another. However other zoos Specialise in one species. Chester Zoo in England did this to great effect. In May 1999, Chester Zoo received a pair of red birds of Paradise from Bronx zoo in America on a breeding loan. Very few Red Birds of Paradise are kept in zoos and the Studbook and world centre for breeding is based at the Bronx Zoo, New York. Special off show facilities were built to house these birds before they went on show. The male was only 5 years of age so he had only just gained his tail streamers. The birds were then separated because males have ben known to cause great damage to the nests of the females . Then 2 male chicks hatched and were fed on a diet of insects and fruit. I wrote this about 6 months ago so it may have changed. The largest collection of BOPs is at the rainforest habitat in new Guinea. They are the only zoo to have Astrapias and Parotias,Princess stephanie's and lawe's respectivly.
