Where to find good eagle aviaries?

R

remar

Well-Known Member
On the contrary to vultures, it seems that the number of high class eagle aviaries isn't that high at all. So i was wondering, where to find the good ones. (And maybe even the best? ;) )

The good one that i can think of are:
  • Stellers Sea Eagle at Zoo Schmiding. A pair is housed within a large walk-trough aviary. It is probably the best exhibit of the whole Zoo. Despite this, Zoo Schmiding has another good, but more simple aviary for martial eagles.
Giant aviary

Giant aviary

Second section for Steller's sea eagles
  • Golden Eagle at Alpine Zoo Innsbruck. Whilst not the most spacious aviary it is at least high and well structured.
Golden eagle aviary

Golden eagle aviary

  • Media owner ralph
  • Date added
19-04-2024.

  • Golden eagle aviary at Zoo Hluboka/Ohrada. This impressive aviary is an eye catcher and the pair also breed at the last years.


Additional i want to mention the former bald eagle aviary at Zoo Brno, which sadly doesn't house eagles anymore. Sometimes (smaller) eagles are also housed within larger aviaries for vultures (e.g steppe eagle at Zoo Schmiding or booted eagle Zoo Praha)

Any more suggestions?
 
 
I'll highlight one superb example. There's a sign up at Scandinavian Wildlife Park (Denmark) next to their Steller's Sea Eagle aviary, claiming that it's the largest for the species in the world. The structure is about an acre in size and here are some photos I took in 2022.

You can see an eagle perched on top of a tree far off in the distance:

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During presentations, visitors are allowed inside with the Steller's Sea Eagles and there's even a tiered seating area.

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remar said:
New On the contrary to vultures, it seems that the number of high class eagle aviaries isn't that high at all. So i was wondering, where to find the good ones. (And maybe even the best? ;) )
Click to expand...
This I think is for two reasons with regards to husbandry.

In the United States, most eagles kept in zoos iirc are bald or golden eagles. Exotic species of eagle are rarer in captivity. But as befits the symbol of the U S of A bald eagles have a slew of legal protections around them in general. And for the most part, the law prevents them from being kept or bred in captivity. Though there is exception - that being if the bird is in a state that after being rescued, it cannot be released. So the bald eagles and golden eagles I think also in zoos in the US are very mainly if not entirely rescue birds under license. And in many cases when they are non releasable it has to do with their ability to fly. An eagle that can't fly obviously is not fit for the wild, so the zoo doesn't even have to build a complete aviary so that they don't fly away.

Another reason to speak internationally, or the UK at least, is their large size. They of course fly around a fair bit and are rather large. So whilst building a fitting aviary isn't impossible, it is very expensive and always somewhat limited. So many zoos choose to free-fly them in a falconry sense. Whereas most of the time they spend at roost.
 
Les Aigles du Léman in Sciez has multiple basic but large to very large eagle aviaries. Several house breeding pairs of white-tailed eagles which young are released. From the point of view of eagles themselves, this may be better than any general zoo.

Brno has a huge eagle aviary.

Dallas World Aquarium is unusual in having huge indoor aviaries for harpies and other South American eagles.

Overall, large eagles like golden or white-tailed are less liked in zoos than e.g. vultures. They are active predators, so multiple pairs and species usually cannot be kept together.

Beauval kept smaller and less predatory species like long-crested and short-toed snake eagles together with secretarybirds and other daptors.
 
@snowleopard that one looks really amazing. And you can also see the reason for the low number of such aviaries. Having such huge exhibits with just two birds is quite boring for visitors.

@Jurek7 as mentioned in my first post, the aviary at Brno is no longer used for eagles.
 
The famous Great Aviary at Prague, which is huge and fades into a steep, densely vegetated cliff face, may be most famous for vultures and kites, but also houses Booted Eagles. Much smaller than other eagles, and the zoo only houses a pair, but nonetheless this aviary is spectacular for them.

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I definitely agree that the standard for vultures is far higher than for eagles (although I would argue that both are far lower than they should be). This is the only truly great eagle aviary that I have seen, and it is primarily for vultures (Cinereous and Bearded). If I am not mistaken, the eagles are a relatively new addition to the aviary, which was not built with them in mind. The only other one I've seen that really comes close is the Steller's Sea Eagle aviary at the Hawk Conservancy Trust, and if memory serves then one of the Bald Eagle aviaries was of a similarly high standard, but even with these I feel as though such large birds can hardly engage in prolonged periods of flight. Magdeburg's (Bald Eagles) is also very big, but it isn't aesthetically pleasing, and again I feel as though the fact that it is amongst the best I have seen says more about the standard than about the aviary itself. No photos of the HCT aviaries in the gallery, but one of Magdeburg's by @RonBurrgundy can be seen below.

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I would agree that eagles are generally not given large enough enclosures in captivity, but there are a few notable exceptions besides the previously mentioned examples on this thread.

San Diego Zoo (USA) is a great location for massive eagle aviaries. There's an extensive boardwalk that takes visitors past a series of spacious aviaries and in recent years there's been species such as Harpy Eagle, Steller's Sea Eagle and Ornate Hawk-Eagle.

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@Coelacanth18

Harpy Eagle aviary:

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Rotterdam Zoo (Netherlands) has a substantial aviary for Steller's Sea Eagles:

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For Bald Eagles, Oakland Zoo (USA) has a large aviary but perhaps the best I've ever seen has been the new one (opened in 2019) at Northwest Trek Wildlife Park (USA) called Eagle Pass.

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Eagles in zoos and in the wild spend hours sitting absolutely still, watching their environment. I wonder if an appropriate enrichment for them would be giving them something to look at?

I also wondered sometimes whether zoos could model rocks and walls so that wind in the enclosure would create updrafts for birds to soar over? It is the aspect of their environment which humans are not aware of.

Bonus: ornate hawk-eagle aviary at DWA. The eagles have sections of the tall hall which is DWA meshed off. They are frequently impossible to see but have space, height and warmth.
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Photo @jbnbsn99
 
upload_2024-11-26_20-58-0.jpeg
Steller's sea eagle aviary, Zamocs zoo, Poland
Stylish but too small
 

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