@jayjds2 I asked for where I may find the jay. I happened to ask the monkey and toucan keeper, who had no idea, but texted the free flight keeper for orinoco free flight that said they are not in that portion. I also asked the mammal keeper who was feeding agouti who knows the keeper who works with, as she said, the curl crested jayS. She said they alternate between the the two large aviaries and off exhibit frequently and that there's no real concrete way of finding them besides looking at the food dishes where birds gather and hope to see them.
I am still curl crested jayless, but have found that when you go after 5, when most everyone has left, the birds come down since today I saw the Guira for the first time in years, and this woodpecker on the bridge above the crocodiles.
The whole curl crested jay situation seems a bit confusing, then. Both a keeper and the website indicated one bird. I saw the guira once, midday. Doesn't the aquarium close at five? I guess they don't make you leave until a later time then?
@jayjds2 The guira used to be very friendly, and still was letting me get within 4 feet of it on the path (I used to see it interact with visitors frequently, then just stopped seeing it over time. I assumed they put it in the large aviary filled with cock of the rocks since I saw one there a while ago). And yes, the aquarium closes at five but you can stay til around 5:30 they don't force you out.
My conclusion for the jays: They may or may not be there but I will always be looking just in case
@Chlidonias It's not that the staff responsible don't know, it's that the only ones I happened to walk by work strictly with the mammals. Some staff only work with a few animals and only know about what they work with. If I were to have found the jay keeper, or those who work with free flight birds I would get a lot of help. The only problem is the aquarium staff is elusive when you need to find them...
The only bird keeper I ever did find was Daryl Richardson himself... the docents however, are plentiful. That said, they aren't exactly the brightest when it comes to birds. One simply said "if it's on the sign, it's probably in there" when I asked about one species (it wasn't in there).
