I had the wonderful opportunity to visit Weltvogelpark Walsrode for a day in June and now that I have experience with both this park and of course my local Bird Paradise and even the now-defunct Jurong Bird Park, I would like to do both a review of Weltvogelpark, as well as how it stacks up with the other Bird Paradise.
To start out, a review of Weltvogelpark Walsrode! The park is situated in the town of Walsrode and unfortunately on the day of my visit, it was a public holiday so pretty much all public transport, with the exception of taxis were put of service, but nonetheless I was able to make my way there on time! To get some minor things out of the way, The layout of the park is very easy to go around and overall it gets a thumbs up from me! Overall the signages are adequate, with small signages in both Deutch and English stating the common name of the bird as well as some facts. Although I noted one particular signage was very particular. One sigange at the Fanserie had a picture of a great tinamou, had the common name listed as "Elegant crested tinamou", and the scientific name of the Solitary tinamou. Besides that pretty funny hiccup, the rest of the signages were good to me.
Okay to more important things, the exhibits of Weltvogelpark is definitely on the older side as expected, with many areas in the Fanserie, Pukara, Paradies-halle and Hinter den kulissen having individual aviaries that house 1 to 3 or 4 species, very much similar to Heliconia walk of the defunct Jurong Bird Park. You can tell its age but to me, it still felt sizeable enough for each species held, and especially in the Fanserie, lushly planted enough to not be too artificial. There's not too many large aviaries in the park, with only 3 walk-through aviaries based on my memory. The flamingo and pelican pools are very solid and spacious and the crane paddocks are also really lushly planted. To talk more about the walk-throughs, the Freiflughalle is a very nice one way aviary with a nice variety of waterfowl and ibis and even a guan! But the two yellow-headed vultures were a huge surprise and definitely made me chuckle. The Snowy owl aviary at Uhu-burg is nice, with even some ungulates as well. The raptor aviaries on the top right corner of the park are also pretty nice (to me at least) and their waterfowl aviaries are spacious as well. Overall I would say there's a good mix of spacious multi-species aviaries and smaller aviaries that highlight 1 or 2 species.
In terms of collection of species, this park did not disappoint in the slightest, it's parrot and waterfowl collection is absolutely stunning, as well as it's cranes. Admittedly I will be doing a lot of comparison with Bird Paradise in Singapore, but wow. What I notice is both parks seem to be stronger in different types of birds, for example, Bird Paradise has more species of African starlings, penguins, Asian passerines and hornbills but Weltvogelpark has a better collection of raptors, particularly owls, cranes, and south American birds like manakins and trogons.
Both parks have their own distinct rarities that will make any species collector drool, but one thing I noticed is that Bird Paradise heavily focuses on Asia, Africa and South American species (Neotropical), and are very strong with these groups. Weltvogelpark Walsrode I would say have a wider variety of birds from different ranges, including birds from more temperate areas such as Europe. The raptor collection is not the biggest, but with some rarities and definitely better than Bird Paradise, and are not restricted to the animal presentations unlike Bird Paradise.
Surprsingly, Weltvogelpark have a nocturnal house for a few herptiles as well as some bats, and both Northern and Southern lesser galagos! I was not able to photograph them but seeing them in the park was definitely a surprise and more memorable than the mammal species found in Bird Paradise (to me at least). Walsrode also has a few breeds of sheep and some invertebrates sprinkled around to add some variety as well!
Bird Paradise has a few species of mammals and one tortoise in some of its aviaries including Azara's Agouti, Bennett's Wallaby and Red-footed tortoises, but as these are surplus species that can be found in other Mandai parks, they don't stand out as much to me.
Both parks have their own distinct rarities that will make any species collector drool, but one thing I noticed is that Bird Paradise heavily focuses on Asia, Africa and South American species (Neotropical), and are very strong with these groups. Weltvogelpark Walsrode I would say have a wider variety of birds from different ranges, including birds from more temperate areas such as Europe. The raptor collection is not the biggest, but with some rarities and definitely better than Bird Paradise, and are not restricted to the animal presentations unlike Bird Paradise.
The bird presentation at Weltvogelpark is a stunner, with the birds having a HUGE open field to fly around, plus the birds fly from behind the restaurant all the way to the field and to the front of the show arena. The pure spectacle of this definitely blows any of Bird paradise's shows out of the water!
Overall, if I were to do a comparison with Singapore's current Bird Paradise, I genuinely think that it stacks up well even with the modern style of the BP. Bird Paradise is more for people who really want naturalistic and spacious aviaries for the birds and overall, for photographers these settings would be absolutely perfect for them. The smaller aviary style of most of Weltvogelpark can sometimes be slightly unnatural but personally it does not really affect me. Although I personally prefer Walsrode's aviaries to Winged Sanctuary to Singapore. These smaller aviaries at Weltvogelpark is actually also easier for people wanting to species hunt, as the main rarities are in these smaller aviaries across the park and would be easier for spotting and pointing out, while Bird Paradise's large aviaries, especially heart of Africa can be a huge pain for trying to find the odd rare species (ahem ahem Ashy starling). Both park's collection stacks really really well against one another as honestly, both parks have a lot of species unique to each one, so I will put them as equal. The food served at Welvogelpark is honestly really good, likewise with Bird Paradise so both parks gets a thumbs up for me. Both parks have their own strengths and even the small little weaknesses of each park are super minute and I am happy to say both parks are a great visit for any bird lover
To start out, a review of Weltvogelpark Walsrode! The park is situated in the town of Walsrode and unfortunately on the day of my visit, it was a public holiday so pretty much all public transport, with the exception of taxis were put of service, but nonetheless I was able to make my way there on time! To get some minor things out of the way, The layout of the park is very easy to go around and overall it gets a thumbs up from me! Overall the signages are adequate, with small signages in both Deutch and English stating the common name of the bird as well as some facts. Although I noted one particular signage was very particular. One sigange at the Fanserie had a picture of a great tinamou, had the common name listed as "Elegant crested tinamou", and the scientific name of the Solitary tinamou. Besides that pretty funny hiccup, the rest of the signages were good to me.
Okay to more important things, the exhibits of Weltvogelpark is definitely on the older side as expected, with many areas in the Fanserie, Pukara, Paradies-halle and Hinter den kulissen having individual aviaries that house 1 to 3 or 4 species, very much similar to Heliconia walk of the defunct Jurong Bird Park. You can tell its age but to me, it still felt sizeable enough for each species held, and especially in the Fanserie, lushly planted enough to not be too artificial. There's not too many large aviaries in the park, with only 3 walk-through aviaries based on my memory. The flamingo and pelican pools are very solid and spacious and the crane paddocks are also really lushly planted. To talk more about the walk-throughs, the Freiflughalle is a very nice one way aviary with a nice variety of waterfowl and ibis and even a guan! But the two yellow-headed vultures were a huge surprise and definitely made me chuckle. The Snowy owl aviary at Uhu-burg is nice, with even some ungulates as well. The raptor aviaries on the top right corner of the park are also pretty nice (to me at least) and their waterfowl aviaries are spacious as well. Overall I would say there's a good mix of spacious multi-species aviaries and smaller aviaries that highlight 1 or 2 species.
In terms of collection of species, this park did not disappoint in the slightest, it's parrot and waterfowl collection is absolutely stunning, as well as it's cranes. Admittedly I will be doing a lot of comparison with Bird Paradise in Singapore, but wow. What I notice is both parks seem to be stronger in different types of birds, for example, Bird Paradise has more species of African starlings, penguins, Asian passerines and hornbills but Weltvogelpark has a better collection of raptors, particularly owls, cranes, and south American birds like manakins and trogons.
Both parks have their own distinct rarities that will make any species collector drool, but one thing I noticed is that Bird Paradise heavily focuses on Asia, Africa and South American species (Neotropical), and are very strong with these groups. Weltvogelpark Walsrode I would say have a wider variety of birds from different ranges, including birds from more temperate areas such as Europe. The raptor collection is not the biggest, but with some rarities and definitely better than Bird Paradise, and are not restricted to the animal presentations unlike Bird Paradise.
Surprsingly, Weltvogelpark have a nocturnal house for a few herptiles as well as some bats, and both Northern and Southern lesser galagos! I was not able to photograph them but seeing them in the park was definitely a surprise and more memorable than the mammal species found in Bird Paradise (to me at least). Walsrode also has a few breeds of sheep and some invertebrates sprinkled around to add some variety as well!
Bird Paradise has a few species of mammals and one tortoise in some of its aviaries including Azara's Agouti, Bennett's Wallaby and Red-footed tortoises, but as these are surplus species that can be found in other Mandai parks, they don't stand out as much to me.
Both parks have their own distinct rarities that will make any species collector drool, but one thing I noticed is that Bird Paradise heavily focuses on Asia, Africa and South American species (Neotropical), and are very strong with these groups. Weltvogelpark Walsrode I would say have a wider variety of birds from different ranges, including birds from more temperate areas such as Europe. The raptor collection is not the biggest, but with some rarities and definitely better than Bird Paradise, and are not restricted to the animal presentations unlike Bird Paradise.
The bird presentation at Weltvogelpark is a stunner, with the birds having a HUGE open field to fly around, plus the birds fly from behind the restaurant all the way to the field and to the front of the show arena. The pure spectacle of this definitely blows any of Bird paradise's shows out of the water!
Overall, if I were to do a comparison with Singapore's current Bird Paradise, I genuinely think that it stacks up well even with the modern style of the BP. Bird Paradise is more for people who really want naturalistic and spacious aviaries for the birds and overall, for photographers these settings would be absolutely perfect for them. The smaller aviary style of most of Weltvogelpark can sometimes be slightly unnatural but personally it does not really affect me. Although I personally prefer Walsrode's aviaries to Winged Sanctuary to Singapore. These smaller aviaries at Weltvogelpark is actually also easier for people wanting to species hunt, as the main rarities are in these smaller aviaries across the park and would be easier for spotting and pointing out, while Bird Paradise's large aviaries, especially heart of Africa can be a huge pain for trying to find the odd rare species (ahem ahem Ashy starling). Both park's collection stacks really really well against one another as honestly, both parks have a lot of species unique to each one, so I will put them as equal. The food served at Welvogelpark is honestly really good, likewise with Bird Paradise so both parks gets a thumbs up for me. Both parks have their own strengths and even the small little weaknesses of each park are super minute and I am happy to say both parks are a great visit for any bird lover
