Brooklands Zoo

Golden? Pheasant on the windowsill of the walk through aviary, seen from outside. This aviary also includes rainbow lorikeets, musk lorikeets, sulfur-crested cockatoo, javan sparrow and king parrots. Also used to house a Parma? wallaby, but that has died and is not being replaced.

Photo 2007

Yes, Golden Pheasant.

The aviary has parrots? How do the plants survive? Especially with a cockatoo?

Yes, it has one male cockatoo, 7 rainbow lorikeets, and a pair of superb parrots, aswell as the other species mentioned, although the king parrots are no longer listed on the ZAA census, so may no longer be there. Am not sure how the plants survive, but there are quite a few in there: small trees, palms and shrubs. Maybe they are very hardy plants? I don't remembera lot of enrichment that would distract the birds. Hopefully I will get there next weekend when I go to New Plymouth and can ask someone, and at least have a decent look myself.

In regard to the plants in the aviary, most are natives, although there are a number of palms which are all exotic (eg. fan palms) except for the NZ nikau palm (Phapalostylus sapida). Native small trees and shrubs include Pittosporum sp, lancewood (Pseudopanax crassifolius), broadleaf (Griselinea littoralis), kowhai (Sophora sp) and a few others which I'm not sure about. Some bird damage was apparent, but most plants seemed to be doing very well.