@Summer Tanager I take pictures of every nook and cranny, I don’t miss a thing because I like using the pictures as reference for my own projects. We are very lucky the zoo still had most of these guys behind the scenes since the bird gardens closed. Otherwise they would’ve been nearly impossible to get back.
Thank you for your insights into the Houston Zoo and its bird collection! I'm very overdue to visit their zoo (it's been 12 or 13 years!) but it's one of my favorites and a truly beautiful zoo. Battling the traffic to get downtown is the biggest hang-up for me and why I haven't visited the zoo more often. I'm very grateful that the Zoo has some off-exhibit space to hold on to part of their bird collection - I'm sure that it would have been tough to get Great Blue Turaco, Red Shoveler, and Orinoco Goose back in the collection if they had given them up!
Oh absolutely, most of these bird species we previously had in the old bird gardens are the same individuals from back then. Now most of the behind the scenes birds are Tropical Asian species waiting for Asian Islands to break ground.
