@Austin the Sengi Thank you for your quick reply! Back in 2022, I did a little research into which zoos held this species in the U.S. At that time, it was around eight (at least San Diego, San Antonio, Pittsburg Aviary, Fort Worth, Disney AK, Minnesota Zoo, North Carolina Zoo and Cleveland). I believe you're the first person to report them from Philadelphia on this forum. I saw this species for the first time at Zoo Tampa (then Lowry Park Zoo) in 1991 and fell in love with them.
Unrelatedly, a similar connection happened between me and the zoo’s Scarlet-Faced Liocichla; and now, the species in general are becoming one of my favorite exotic passerines!
@Austin the Sengi I agree with you about the Scarlet-faced Liocichla! Awesome birds! My home zoo of Oklahoma City had a pair of "Red-faced" Liocichlas for five or six years in the early 2000s in their indoor walk-through aviary and I thought they were great. Several zoos in the 1990s and early 2000s had a nearly identical species called the Red-faced Liocichla (Liocichla phoenicia), but these days all of the liocichlas in the U.S seem to be Scarlet-faced Liocichlas (Liocichla ripponi). I don't know if one species died out in captivity and was replaced by a newly imported population of the other, or if someone decided that the earlier captive birds were misidentified as "Red-faced Liocichla" and corrected it to "Scarlet-faced Liocichla"? I hope it's the latter scenario because the photos that I see of Scarlet-faced Liocichla are identical to the birds that I remember from 20 years ago! Someone on this form probably nows, but I've never asked. Its a wonderful group of birds and I hope the captive Liocichla population expands!
