Just 'discovered' the website of this collection and it seems to be realy good. They claim to be the second biggest bird-collection in the USA but even so I had never heared of it ! Also at ZooChat hardly anything about this park so I would be very intrested to hear first hand experience of ZooChatters with this park. Website : http://shwpark.com/
Second biggest in the USA, there is no way. Biggest waterfowl collection in USA, however, I would not doubt. Three species of flamingo is very impressive for non AZA facilities. However, their tropical species are mostly just ducks and geese- no storks, cranes, manakins, birds of paradise, crows, or a lot of other things. It looks nice for waterfowl, though. I'll have to check it out some day.
At this point they have actually acquired a number of the species for the tropical exhibit. They are currently housing Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise, Broad Billed Hummingbird, and a number of other small exotic species!
this sounds like a serious collection: Mike Lubbock I found a book about the place as well, which may interest some people: [ame="http://www.amazon.com/Waterfowl-Sylvan-Heights-Lubbocks-Worldwide/dp/0991371909/ref=pd_sim_14_1?ie=UTF8&dpID=517pXKPfIwL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL160_SR107%2C160_&refRID=0XMGE80VN70R38G1YA13"]The Waterfowl Man of Sylvan Heights (Mike Lubbock's Worldwide Quest to Save Waterfowl): Dale A. True: 9780991371907: Amazon.com: Books[/ame]
It certainly sounds like a great facility. It'll be about 3.5 hours from where I'm going to live, hopefully I'll visit once or twice and see what it's like.
I wonder if they still have all those animals from the expeditions? Some of them aren't listed elsewhere on the site. I'd be super happy to see kelp goose.
I came very close to visiting this collection in 2012. Had a spare day in North Carolina and had to choose between Sylvan Heights (I think it was called Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park those days) and Duke Lemur Center. Since I figured that this might be my last chance to see Diadmed Sifaka I chose the Lemur Center. Turned out I was right - the sifaka passed away soon thereafter. But I would still love to visit Sylvan Heights, it looks like a very interesting place.
Despite my dubious opinions earlier (not sure where I came to my conclusions...) I visited today, after a renewed look at their website and lots of pestering to get my mom to take me there. There is a large aviary for each continent, except for Europe and Asia, which are combined. Africa has two aviaries but they are not quite as large. There is also a Budgie aviary, but it had way more than just budgies- you could hand feed them, along with a white-rumped shama, Javan whistling ducks, a spur-winged lapwing, a Luzon bleeding-heart, scarlet ibises, American flamingos, and a few others. Duck food can be purchased at the entrance as well, and can be used almost anywhere. I saw many firsts (or things that I made a point of noticing for the first time) such as maned duck, yellow-hooded blackbird, European blackbird, Indian Pygmy goose, steamer ducks (not sure if I saw one species or two, or which species I saw. They weren't signed but the park has two), Laysan teals, and many more. Some of the enclosures for larger birds (emu, white-naped crane) were a little too small for my taste, but most were great. As an added bonus I saw Javan pond heron chicks. I will come back at least once in the next few years.
Taken any pictures - would be great to see photos of some of the species you've seen and maybe we can also help you by ID for example the Steamer ducks.
I took quite a few. I'm probably going to upload them early (in comparison to the rest of my uploads). I haven't uploaded any photos of a visit past March of this year, but I'll do these soon because there aren't any photos in the gallery of the facility.
Short clip of an Hawaiian goose just hatched at the park : https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=1472315476133992
I was searching around for the Wings of the Tropics completion date and found this article: Donation lifts Sylvan Heights The completion date is late April-early May. I'll visit sometime after, probably in the summer.
The fact that a website does not mention a quite small bird in an appropriately small aviary is odd? The facility used to have waterfowl in its name, and that is its focus.
Spring e-newsletter: New Exhibit Opening Spring 2017! Highlights include the opening date of Wings of the Tropics (April 29th), hatching of a Senegal thick-knee, and assisting the La Paz Zoo (Bolivia) in establishing a captive Andean flamingo flock (!). Perhaps a potential source for imports in the future? Also, could a mod move this thread to its appropriate sub forum now that one exists?
