Happy group of death day, folks. Chester. Dallas. Birds. The rules: You have three votes to award. If you think it's a tight match, award 2 votes to the stronger zoo and 1 to the weaker one. But if you think it's a wider margin than that, award all 3 votes to the winner. Your criteria for how you make your decision is entirely up to you, *except* that you must stay only within the given category. That includes ignoring the results of the other match: no strategic voting. All votes are public, and all votes can be changed. The purpose of the game is to provoke debate, so make your case for why people should vote the same way as you do. Be open to reconsidering your vote.
The only Dallas species list on here is from 2013: Review of Dallas Zoo [Dallas Zoo] Sounds like it has (presumably still) a really nice collection of African birds, but I can't help but feel that Chester would be the better zoo for birds?
I think I'm in a unique position of having visited all four zoos in Group H within the last two years! I visited both Dallas and Chester both in 2018 actually. Due to this, I can supply species lists accurate to what I saw as of my last visit: Dallas Zoo Palm-Nut Vulture African White-Backed Vulture Northern Bald Eagle African Fish-Eagle American Harpy Eagle Hooded Vulture African Lappet-Faced Vulture Canvasback Blue-Winged Goose West Indian Whistling-Duck Fulvous Whistling-Duck White-Faced Whistling-Duck Marbled Teal Orinoco Goose Red-Crested Pochard Northern Spur-Winged Goose Southern Spur-Winged Goose (they keep a mixed pair) New World Comb Duck Northern Shoveler Hottentot Teal Red Shoveler Common Shelduck Southern Screamer Trumpeter Hornbill Wreathed Hornbill Jackson's Hornbill Green Wood-Hoopoe Red-Legged Seriema King Vulture Andean Condor Western White Stork Maguari Stork Saddle-Billed Stork Marabou Stork Wood Stork Speckled Mousebird Speckled Pigeon Pied Imperial-Pigeon Crested Pigeon Blue-Bellied Roller Vulturine Guineafowl Helmeted Guineafowl Blue Crane Demoiselle Crane White-Naped Crane West African Black Crowned Crane East African Grey Crowned Crane Wattled Crane Lady Ross's Turaco Snowy-Crowned Robin-Chat White-Headed Buffalo-Weaver Taveta Golden Weaver Amethyst Starling Western Cattle Egret Dalmatian Pelican Eastern Brown Pelican Great White Pelican Lesser Flamingo American Flamingo Red-and-Yellow Barbet Western Double-Eyed Fig-Parrot African Penguin Spectacled Owl Total Taxa: 63 Chester Zoo Cape Teal White-Winged Wood Duck Baer's Pochard White-Faced Whistling-Duck Old World Comb Duck Hottentot Teal Ruddy Shelduck African White-Backed Duck Great Indian Hornbill Javan Rhinoceros Hornbill Visayan Tarictic Hornbill Sunda Wrinkled Hornbill red-billed hornbill Blacksmith Lapwing Abdim's Stork Black Stork Blue-Naped Mousebird Nicobar Pigeon Grey-Capped Emerald Dove Pied Imperial-Pigeon Mindanao Bleeding-Heart Dove Luzon Bleeding-Heart Dove Cinnamon Ground-Dove Victoria Crowned-Pigeon White-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon Green-Naped Pheasant-Pigeon Black-Naped Fruit-Dove Pink-Headed Fruit-Dove Eastern Superb Fruit-Dove Socorro Dove Sunbittern Red-Billed Curassow Kenyan Crested Guineafowl Helmeted Guineafowl Congo Peafowl Himalayan Monal Salvadori's Pheasant Mountain Peacock-Pheasant Palawan Peacock-Pheasant Cabot's Tragopan West African Black Crowned Crane East African Grey Crowned Crane Wattled Crane White-Crested Turaco Javan Green-Magpie Asian Azure-Winged Magpie Indian Red-Billed Blue Magpie Timor Sparrow Java Sparrow Timor Zebra Finch Montserrat Oriole Asian Fairy-Bluebird Sumatran Laughingthrush Blue-Crowned Laughingthrush Spotted Laughingthrush Silver-Eared Mesia Omei Shan Liocichla Red-Tailed Laughingthrush Snowy-Crowned Robin-Chat White-Rumped Shama Red Fody Western Village Weaver Asian Glossy Starling Purple Glossy Starling Bali Mynah Red-Winged Starling Grosbeak Starling Yellow Cardinal Scarlet-Rumped Tanager Chestnut-Backed Thrush Grey-Winged Blackbird Kilimanjaro White-Eye Little Egret Hamerkop American Flamingo Black-Browed Barbet Fiery-Tufted Barbet Green Aracari Hyacinth Macaw Yellow-Backed Chattering Lory Brazilian Grey-Breasted Conure Humboldt Penguin Luzon Lowland Scops-Owl Northern White-Faced Owl Spectacled Owl Brown Wood-Owl Ural Owl Collared Trogon Total Taxa: 88 Dallas' collection is better than I remembered it being, especially when it comes to birds-of-prey, waterfowl, and cranes. Chester still has the superior collection, though. I'm not sure about Dallas, but Chester's number will actually be higher than what I've reported due to them having several parrot species behind the scenes as well as some species I've missed on my visits that I couldn't remember exactly. I also left out some species I'm unclear of due to changes to the zoo since my last visit. It's worth noting that a good few of their animals are singletons and not really present for breeding, but they still do have some very choice breeding programs in the green-magpie and other more endangered species. In general they seem to have a rarer collection as well, despite Dallas having a few heavy hitters. It should also be noted that Dallas' exhibitry for their birds is rather bland for the most part. Rather simply-- though nice-- aviaries scattered throughout the zoo, a large waterfowl pond, and a couple of walk-through aviaries. Chester on the other hand, while they do still have a few rather simply aviaries, has some truly amazing walk-through aviaries in Monsoon Forest (still counts imo..) and Tropical Realm. In this case I'm voting 2-1 Chester and I can't really see much of an argument to chance my mind. ~Thylo
