European Songbirds in North American Zoos.

Azamat Shackleford

Azamat Shackleford

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
As we all know, European species aren’t commonly represented in North American zoos as species from other continents, and passerines are no exception. They’ve seem to have been more widely kept in the past, but now seem to be rarely held (besides private collections, but even then they’re few and far in between), so I decided why not we compile a list of all the current species that zoos in North America are keeping?

So far:

Pinola Aviary (Which also received an import relatively recently, along with some European shorebirds)

Blue tit
Common blackbird
Eurasian jay
European goldfinch
European serin
Great tit
Song thrush
Yellow-breasted tit

Reid Park Zoo
European goldfinch

San Diego Zoo
European goldfinch

Sylvan Heights Bird Park
Common blackbird
 
Since I cannot edit this post, can someone please move this to the North America General section? I accidentally posted this into the United States section.
 
Lots of European songbird species are fairly common in the private trade, so it's a bit of a surprise to see them not be very common in zoos. The only ones I've seen on display anywhere is the European Starling at Bay Beach Wildlife Sanctuary and (arguably) the House Sparrows at Minnesota.
 
Bronx Zoo kept bearded reedlings when I visited in 2013. Are these still around there or in other zoos? (Or do they not count as "European" due to having a wide range in Asia?)
 
San Diego at least used to have Bearded Reedling, I remember seeing signage for them in Dec 2017 in the Northern Trail aviary.
Other than that... European songbirds are pretty nearly unheard of in zoos here.
 
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