The Bird Park will be opening a new public gallery at its Breeding and Research Centre (BRC) this Saturday. The BRC has been in existence for 24 years and has till now been accessible only to select organized tours. Incubation rooms, nursery rooms, weaning rooms and the kitchen will be visible to all visitors. The 100 breeding aviaries will remain off-limits but some aviaries can be viewed via closed-circuit TV. Majority of the breeding birds at the BRC are parrots, including hyacinth, blue-throated and red-fronted macaws. EGGS AND CHICKS EGGS-PERTLY PAMPERED AT JURONG BIRD PARK Wildlife Press
from your photos the breeding centre looks very interesting Zooish. Is it actually on the same grounds as the Bird Park? (i.e. do you visit them both at the same time)
@Chlidonias: Yes, it's within the park and actually quite near the park entrance. Most of the centre is obscured from the main pathway by plants. I spent quite a bit of time in there, all those gangly chicks are attractive in their own awkward way. A big plus for me was seeing the blue-throated macaws; the species' been taken off exhibit for while.
The new map of JBP shows a tram rather than the monorail, so I presume this has now gone? Has the track been removed also?
Yes, the monorail has been taken out of service. When I visited in mid-May, the monorails were parked at the service garage, and the tracks were still intact. Another tourist attraction (Sentosa island) had turned a section of its disused monorail track into a boardwalk through a patch forest, to good effect. Maybe JBP might follow suit.
Jurong has managed to breed the King BoP, with 2 chicks hatched: Jurong Bird Park welcomes king bird-of-paradise hatchlings
Seen them on my previous visit to Jurong Bird Park. Always a joy to behold and watch. Brilliant news they finally hatched some. The female seems to be looking after her chicks very well. Any other noteworthy bird of paradise news from Jurong to report?
After a few years i finally re-visited Jurong Bird park, after hearing from a few friends that things seems to be changing (for the best). I was a regular visitor until a few years back, but when I started seeing the standards going down a bit (I was told the then management was not really keen on the park, weather it is true or not, I do not know) I stopped being a regular. Now a friend of mine told me that the management changed and that the field management also changed and they got someone from Loro Parque to run the collection; I have no idea who the new team is, but you can see some improvements already, and it seems that their breeding success is also much better now, with valuable and rare species breeding forthe first time in years (or ever). Anyone noticed the changes as well? The aviaries are cleaner, the birds look even better taken care of and the display guidelines seem to make more sense now. One of the biggest changes was the Heliconia Walk, that used to be a sad little place and now harbours Jurong's (much diminished, I must say) south american parakeet collection. The parrot place seems less of a mess, and there is a spectacular australian cockatoo aviary with at least 7 black cockatoos of three species (red tail, yellow tail, carnaby's) along with galah, major mitchel, cockatiels and (oddly) superb parrots. I also noted that now many of the parrot species are identified to the subspecies level, something without precedents at Jurong (and very Loro Parque like..) Overall my recent visit made me fall in love with Jurong again and I will definately be a regular again. I can't wait to see where this new direction will take what now is again my favourite zoo in the whole wide world. Just a few thoughts... CA
Jurong was badly affected by SARS in 2003 and they took several years to get back in shape again. They recently completed a collection review and the improvements are slowly coming along. Good to note too that their attendance improved in 2011.
@Zooish, Could you please explain how they were affected by SARS , do you mean attendance was affected? Do you have any more details on the collection review and its implications? Could you please also provide some detail on any new developments, for example this new Shoebill enclosure (where is it, what's in the old enclosure?) and the changes to Heliconia Walk (where have the kingfishers gone?). Cheers.
@zooboy28: SARS hit attendance real badly. The park had to cut back on a lot of costs and upgrading works were shelved. I don't have details of the collection review unfortunately. The new Shoebill enclosure is along the flamingo lake boardwalk. A pair of saddlebill storks have moved into he previous shoebill exhibit. The kingfishers are still at Heliconia walk, while the other aviaries that used to have a mishmash of species now house conures and caiques. Parrot paradise now focuses on macaws, cockatoos and medium sized parrots.
Thanks for that Zooish. -Were the Saddlebills off-display at the park (not the ones from the zoo)? -So, what has become of the mishmash of species that was there (on my visit there were Red-legged Seriema, Red-billed Hornbill, Black-necked Aracari and some lovebirds, as well as Red-fronted Macaw, which I guess have gone to Parrot Paradise).
Thanks Zooish, as a bird lover I am glad Jurong is getting back on track. As for the birds that used to be at heliconia walk, I recall seing the seriema with the scarlet ibises (a lot of young birds as well), the aracari is in one of the smaller (or should I say ''less big'') aviaries at the hornbill/toucan complex and the macaws are at parrots, along with two young blue throated macaws (nice display!). Not sure about the lovebirds, but I saw a red billed hormnbill at the african aviary, during the feeding; very nice. Didn't see any bee-eaters anymore, I wonder if there are still some left.. The kingfishers are still in the first heliconia aviaries (white collared, ruddy, blue breasted) but there is also a white throated at the asian aviary and blue winged kookaburra with the lories. Not sure if I missed some.
The new shoebill exhibit is perhaps a bit too bare (then again, it is recently planted...), but the birds looked fine. I also enjoyed the new yellow billed stork display at the african aviary, really brings some life to that part of the aviary. And also noticed some european white storks together with the almost 100 roseate spoonbills. Just an add-on...
@kifaru: nothing significant reported in the press. @zooboy28 and cyanoliseus: the Saddlebills had been placed in a semi off exhibit pen after African Wetlands was torn down. Seriemas are with the rheas now. The white storks were relocated from Night safari.
Cyanoliseus is right about the seriema being with the scarlet ibis now, down to one elderly individual unfortunately. The 6 former kingfisher aviaries at Heliconia Walk have been merged into 3 aviaries. Less species displayed, but each now has double the space.
