I don’t know if you are baiting but if you are I will take it. No functioning zoo would let their animals die in an aviary for the scavengers to clean them. They would only be given a carcass or “carrion” from a safe source such as a inspected butcher. Also marabous are a menace that could peck anything smaller than them to death. That’s the last thing a zoo would want with their animals.
I’ve seen Marabou mixed with different birds like pigeons, herons and ducks in an walkthrough aviary in Shunde Changlu Resorts in Foshan.
Unfortunately, Sacramento Zoo is too small right now to have free-flight aviaries (It is my biggest wish they have more than one). Oakland Zoo has yellow-billed storks and hooded vultures with hamerkops, Malagasy sacred ibises, pied crows, and superb starlings alongside cape hyraxes and klipspringers. San Francisco Zoo has two free-flight aviaries. By your definition of "large bird", they currently have an African openbill stork in their African Aviary with African sacred and hadada ibises. During my trip to Zoo Miami, they had a sarus crane and white stork in with multiple species. Los Angeles Zoo, last time I visited, had their trumpeter swan and West African black crowned-cranes in with multiple species. Brookfield had a great egret in one of their mixed-species aviaries. Lincoln Park house their Eurasian black vultures with their white storks in a large aviary. Their Abdim's stork share their space with Hottentot (blue-billed) teals and African spoonbills. San Diego Safari Park has a large aviary next to the safaris that have white storks, a secretarybird, and a kori bustard in the same space. San Diego Zoo had an African openbill and African darter (a pretty good sized water bird) in a large, African, mixed-species aviary (forgot the name of that specific aviary). Large birds as you're describing are possible in a large enough aviary and can cohabitate with other species, barring that the species in question is a large, predatory raptor like a harpy or a large hornbill like a great. I have yet to see fully-flighted flamingos in a large, mix-species aviary but I know they can cohabitate well with other species.
They're not too small - Sequoia Park Zoo has one for example. Hypothetically they could put a small one where the three ugly wire rounds are, the ones housing the owls, lapwings, and hornbills. They could net that space after taking out the rounds and do a free flight. The exhibit you're referring to isn't an aviary though. Idk if the birds are flighted or not. The Abdim's and Storm's Storks in Wings of the World are flighted though.
Very true, and I thought the same thing but...Sacamento Zoo is moving to Elk Grove. Elk Grove just approved 100 acres dedicated to the zoo. City of Elk Grove plans to relocate Sacramento Zoo to Elk Grove | abc10.com I saw their Abdim's stork in their Wings of the World aviary when I went. Their Storm's stork was not flighted and was in the pond next to the Chilean flamingos when I went there. I got a brief glimpse of it and spazzed out seeing it. I got a crappy picture of it moving away to hide out of sight.
The one picture I got of the Storm's stork I got. They moved away and walked off before I got a good shot of him.
Some examples I have seen personally throughout the years: Antwerp Zoo - Buffalo aviary (walk-through) Ruëppel's vulture Hooded vulture Abdim's stork Yellow-billed stork Black-casqued hornbill Ducks, guineafowl, starlings, doves and pigeons, turako, ibisses, egrets, plovers, ... Antwerp Zoo - Swamp aviary (semi-walk-through) Marabu Northern ground hornbill Rueppel's vulture Egyptian vulture Ducks, guineafowl, hamerkop Blijdorp - Vulture aviary (semi-walk-through, previous full walk through but changed due to bird flue outbreaks in Europe) 3 large vulture species (Ruëppel, white-backed and white-headed) Hooded vulture Marabu Secretary bird Crowned crane (former, switched out for the secretary birds) Black kite Ducks, guineafowl, hamerkop Blijdorp - Flamingo aviary (walk-through) Greater flamingo Ducks Blijdorp - Large asian aviary (walk-through, though now permanently closed off due to bird flue outbreaks) Painted stork Asian whooly-necked stork Ibisses, egrets, ducks, pheasants Cologne - aviary next to tropical house Green peafowl Braminy kite Pheasants, ducks Planckendael - vulture aviary Monk vulture Griffon vulture Red-billed chough Planckendael - Chilean aviary (walk-through) Chilean flamingo Carribean flamingo Dwarf flamingo Humboldt penguin Black-necked swan Steamer duck Terns, ibisses, ducks, black-necked stilts Gaiazoo - Flamingo aviary (semi-walk-through) Greater flamingo Ibisses, ducks, egrets Nordhorn - ibex aviary (semi-walk-through) Siberian ibex European pond turtle Griffon vulture Northern bald ibis Artis - vulture aviary Griffon vulture Blue peafowl Pairi Daiza - Mixed raptor aviary (walk-through) Secretary bird Several other raptor species, including crowned eagle and some sort of falcon
In Beauval nearly all the bird species live in more or less large aviaries and greenhouses, where they can fly freely. A few species live in open-topped enclosures, where they cannot fly : a flock of White Pelicans, some pairs of Cranes, White Storks and Geese, and many Ducks. Not to mention the Penguins and Ratites. A special indication about the flock of American Flamingos, recently transferred in the SOuth American aviary : theoretically these birds would fly, but as they are mostly aged birds many of them (if not all) have been pinioned in the past.
This is quite often the case with flamingoes, pelicans, cranes, .... In Planckendael most of the flock of Chilean flamingo's is also still pinioned, only the birds born in the aviary can fly. And I suspect that most red-backed pelicans and dalmatian pelicans in Dierenrijk (Mierlo) and Zoo Amersfoort are also still pinioned. I've also seen cranes in aviaries many times (Planckendael, Zoo Krefeld, Blijdorp, Artis, Zoo Antwerpen, Pakawi park, Pairi Daiza, Safaripark Beekse Bergen and Ouwehands dierenpark ; both crowned species, sarus, red-crowned, European, demoiselle, paradise and white-necked) but most of these were pinioned as they were once kept in an open-topped exhibit. As long as the majority of cranes are kept in open-topped exhibits, I also don't see this changing.
In bird paradise, most of the large cranes are theoretically flighted. However, this has failed to catch on, and the pelicans and Greater flamingos are still wing clipped elsewhere in Mandai
In the Netherlands there are a lot of large fully flighted birds in aviaries, I can give a VERY long list of impressive aviaries present here. But I think the two I like most are Snavelrijk and Vogelrijk in Amersfoort and Dierenrijk. Species pages: (I should note that the Pelicans in Snavelijk / Realm of beaks are non-flighted, the other birds are all allowed to fly) Multiple zoos in the Netherlands and Belgium have W. Eurasian griffon vultures in impressive aviaries, but Amersfoort is the only one where they can really soar. I've seen the vultures here glide in circles without needing to flap constantly, meaning they can really fly around instead of just flying from one spot to another (which they do in a lot of other aviaries in the Netherlands). This is also the case for the Turkey vultures that are held in Burgers' Zoo's Desert hall, which have a lot of open air space, partially because the Desert hall doesn't have that much tall foliage that blocks them. Vogelrijk / Bird realm in Dierenrijk is another colossal aviary, and the only place I've seen a pelican fly in an aviary. It's one of (if not the) biggest aviaries in the Benelux. Another good mention is Beekse Bergen's new giant Savanna aviary, which holds Rüppel's vultures and Secretary birds, this is the only aviary I've seen Secretary birds in a tree. Blijdorp's vulture/Secretarybird aviary is also impressively sized, but I haven't seen the Secretary birds actually fly in here.
The pair of secretarybirds were building a nest in one of the trees in Blijdorp this spring, so they definitively can and do fly there as well. A very impressive sight.
