Colorful birds in zoos

J

Jurek7

Well-Known Member
15+ year member
Which unusual, colorful birds you would want to see more in zoos? Instead of a few easy to keep ducks, cattle egrets and scarlet ibises.

I want to see:
- lyrebird - they were not seen outside Australia for a 100 years or so!
- quetzal
- pittas - incredible birds, but most zoos keep only hooded.
 
Heh. Here in Australia the list is as long as your arm. We have a decent selection of parrots (though Hyacinth macaws aren't viable long-term which is a tragedy, and I'd love to see Pesquet's parrots and keas in Australia)... but show me your flamingoes, crowned cranes, birds of paradise, hornbills, turacoes and toucans!
 
Oh gosh, so many. Lyrebird, Bird of Paradise, King Vulture, Cock-of-the-rocks, Toucans, Toucanet, Aracari, Hornbills . . .
 
In the Uk would love to see more Hummingbirds, birds of paradise, Manakins and Fairy Wrens
 
I'd love to see lyrebirds in a zoo outside Australia...

More birds-of-paradise too...

Also there are many smaller species that get overlooked in zoo collections, like pittas and fairywrens as already mentioned but there are others too.
 
Yes, fairywrens! Actualy there is almost no Australian passerines in Europe except some finches and blue-eared honeyeaters.

Europe is also poor in small Central and South American birds - forget these funny quails, hummingbirds, quetzals, jacamars, barbets, toucanets, cotingas, umbrellabirds, cocksof-the-rock, troupials, caciques, oropendolas, green jays, cardinals, most tanagers...
 
Really disappointing as there are many very interesting neotropical species both in zoo collections and not represented.
 
Jurek7 said:
Yes, fairywrens! Actualy there is almost no Australian passerines in Europe except some finches and blue-eared honeyeaters.

Europe is also poor in small Central and South American birds - forget these funny quails, hummingbirds, quetzals, jacamars, barbets, toucanets, cotingas, umbrellabirds, cocksof-the-rock, troupials, caciques, oropendolas, green jays, cardinals, most tanagers...
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Europe is welcome to take in the cardinal that decides to start singing outside my window at 4:30 in the morning ;) They're a common wild bird here but I'm also surprised that not too many zoos have them. They're colourful and have a lovely song, and don't seem like they'd be hard to look after.
 
I guess because they're so common would be the only reason I can think of...they're often seen wild on zoo grounds. For N.American zoos, anyways...
 
One of my favourites and quite commonly seen in zoos is the royal or golden breasted starling.
 
Meaghan Edwards said:
Europe is welcome to take in the cardinal that decides to start singing outside my window at 4:30 in the morning ;) They're a common wild bird here but I'm also surprised that not too many zoos have them. They're colourful and have a lovely song, and don't seem like they'd be hard to look after.
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Don't Virginia Cardinals tend to lose their colour in captivity?
 
Pittas can be nasty to each other. Male killing female if not plenty of space and hiding places. Therefore breeding is often difficult and most of the different species that have been kept have died out after a few years. In captivity cardinals lose colors as many red birds but this can be solved by food. But colors still not as vibrant as in the wild. Most small South American birds in European zoos are from Suriname where imported via the Netherlands. So in European zoos there are very few small South American birds that are not found in Suriname. And about 3/4 of all South American birds not found in Suriname. Some bird groups are not kept at all probably because mostly brown in color but some would still be interesting to see. Like strange Long-billed Woodcreeper or Ocellated Antbird

Long-billed Woodcreeper (Nasica longirostris) on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

DSC_1154 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
 
Birdman7487 said:
id also like to see something like a madagascar malachite aka malagasy kingfisher
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when speaking of kingfishers. Any kind of paradise kingfisher would be nice.

Numfor Paradise Kingfisher http://ibc.lynxeds.com/files/pictures/Numfor PKF.jpg
Buff-breasted Paradise Kingfisher http://www.wettropics.gov.au/st/rai...ages/animals/birds/BuffBreastedKingfisher.jpg
Common Paradise Kingfisher http://orientalbirdimages.org/search.php?action=searchresult&Bird_ID=388
Brown-headed Paradise Kingfisher http://www.flickr.com/photos/16420772@N07/2884826489/sizes/l/
Biak Paradise Kingfisher http://www.flickr.com/photos/30369673@N06/3015375402/
 
Yes! Paradise kingfishers are one of my favorite birds!

I wonder if any Australian zoos kept them?
 
Maybe some places in Australia or New Guinea keep Paradise Kingfishers, but I doubt they're in any other collections which is a shame.
 
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