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Melaka Bird Park Melaka Bird Park visit, 30 April 2014

Discussion in 'Malaysia' started by Chlidonias, 30 Apr 2014.

  1. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

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    The Melaka Bird Park opened in March 2013. It cost 30 million Ringgitts and is claimed as being the largest walk-through aviary in Malaysia. Apparently it is also “the first open aviary bird park in Malaysia” whatever that means. The adult entry price is 15 Ringgitts during the week, 20 Ringgitts on the weekends and public holidays; foreigners are 25 Ringgitts. I gather the price was quite a bit higher when the place originally opened (once the opening special of 10 Ringgitts had finished). I was rather disappointed with my visit and was only there about half an hour. There are several problems with the bird park, mostly simply due to it being new, but also because the entire place is just one walk-through aviary with no accompanying individual aviaries to give additional variety and scope and thus not as great a “value for money” feel.

    The first problem, resulting from it being recently built, is that it is incredibly bare. From any point in the aviary you can see every other point, which makes the aviary as a whole seem much smaller than it really is. The bareness of it also almost encourages visitors to make one circuit and then leave, because there are no surprises; you know exactly where you are in the aviary at all times. Maybe in ten years the aviary will look like a jungle – like the ones at Jurong, for example – but for now it is a veritable desert. Actually it doesn't even look like the management have any intention of it becoming a jungle. Most of the aviary is just bare lawn with dead trees for perching. There are shrubs and saplings here and there but nothing like the distribution needed for it to become well-jungled. Another issue with this is that most of the birds in there are parrots (including large macaws) and these may well destroy any growth before it can get properly started! There was one largish palm tree in there which was almost dead already. Actually I'm not even sure if all the dead trees in there didn't start out as being alive.

    The best way to avoid a bare walk-through aviary is to build it over existing trees in the first place. The second-best idea is to plant very fast-growing (and hopefully unpalatable) trees once the aviary is constructed. In a climate like Malaysia's it doesn't take long to get a jungle effect if you choose the right tree species! The more trees you have the better the visitor experience (up to a point) and the less pressure is put on each individual plant by the parrots.

    The accompanying issue with the aviary being so bare is that there appears to be almost no birds inside – because they are all sitting up under the aerial walkways on the beams and cables (which thus are now all covered in layers of guano!). Others were as high as they could possibly get at the top of the aviary – the cockatiels in particular were all lined up along the very top edge (many of them simply clinging to the mesh because there wasn't enough room on the cable the others were using). Casual visitors don't want to have to work for their birds – if they wanted that they would go real birdwatching! I had my binoculars so I could see where and what things were, but currently I don't think most visitors will see much.

    So, unfortunately, I don't rate the Melaka Bird Park very highly at all. Hopefully it will get better, but right now it isn't so great. The following are the species I saw inside the aviary. I probably missed some, but it shouldn't be many because there aren't many places for them to hide! The signage was abysmal (a couple of laminated print-outs). There was no sign of the red-bellied macaws or the aracaris which devilfish saw in May 2013.


    BIRDS:

    mutation Mandarin ducks

    Blue peafowl

    Spot-necked dove
    Zebra dove

    Blue and gold macaw
    Green-winged macaw
    Sun conure
    African grey parrot
    Sulphur-crested cockatoo (one was a Greater, I think the other two I saw were Lesser)
    Cockatiel
    Eclectus
    Indian ringneck (mostly mutations)
    Green-naped lorikeet
    Dusky lory
    Duivenbode's lory
    Black-capped lory
    Violet-necked lory
    Chattering lory
    Red lory
    Blue-streaked lory
     
    Last edited: 2 Jan 2019
  2. devilfish

    devilfish Well-Known Member

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    The species list looks even more feeble than when I visited. A pity.
    I visited shortly after the initial opening; there were quite a few living trees and all the metalwork seemed clean.
    The curator's visions of a 'Malaysian forest' aviary don't seem to be any closer.
     
  3. Chlidonias

    Chlidonias Moderator Staff Member 15+ year member

    Joined:
    13 Jun 2007
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    New Zealand