Favourite European bird house

[amur leopard]

And although i have not visited the zoo yet i would also like to bring up something completely different. What's about the penguin house at Loro Parque?

I was really impressed by the penguin house when I visited - wrote about it at length in my travel thread - not sure it's easy to compare with most of the other bird houses here though. How much one values species/biome diversity influences things massively I guess. It's definitely the best at what it does in Europe (that I know of at least) though. Interesting point.

 

[remar]

It's definitely the best at what it does in Europe (that I know of at least) though. Interesting point.

And probably this is the point. Every traditional birdhouse has at least some species, which are displayed in larger aviaries at other zoos while Loro Parques pengiun house is superior in terms of sub antarctic penguins at Europe. (And yes, i'm well aware that it is hard to compare this one with all the other mentioned houses here)

 

[Philipine eagle]

Walsrode Paradieshalle - Basel - Warschau, in no particular order (I mistakenly voted for Wroclaw).

Berlin is a bit too sterile for me, Amsterdam lacks interesting species and Antwerp has too small aviaries. Wuppertal has only 1 exhibition these days, albeit a very good one. I haven't seen the Blackburn pavilion since its renovation, nor the Rakos pavilion in Prague.

That leaves Vienna. I was very happy to have seen it last year, but frankly, other bird houses are far better imo. Architecturally, I don't find Vienna that special (I don't like that building period either), there are only 2 exhibits and although the species list was still worthwhile, it pales in comparison to Warsaw, Walsrode, Wroclaw, etc.

 

[lintworm]

I'm somehow surprised that Berlin is at the lead. The collection is stunning (and i don't wanna miss my only sight of a Kiwi) but the house itself is imo kind of boring.

This surprised me too, but I think there are 2 reasons:
- In this list it is probably the house that the most Zoochatters have seen
- There is a tendency to rate number of rarities higher than exhibit quality in this kind of polls on Zoochat and given it is the most speciose bird house in Europe, that is enough to overcome the small aviaries and old-fashioned design.

And although i have not visited the zoo yet i would also like to bring up something completely different. What's about the penguin house at Loro Parque?

I intended it to be the best "traditional" bird house poll, not the best house with birds, but fair enough

 

[lintworm]

In my opinion the main row of aviaries are plenty big enough for the inhabitants, though they certainly aren't vast. However the natural, often dense planting means enrichment is much better for the birds than in most aviaries. My only size issue with the pavilion is in the first walkthrough with the palm cockatoo (and now BoP) which though tall and long is thin so the birds don't have too much room to escape from people. But again, the environment is very varied and there are plenty of things to hide behind. On my first visit in 2019 the birds in there seemed rather twitchy, but last year they'd settled nicely and the palms didn't seem to mind people getting close to them.

Be very interested in your comments following the visit.

After visiting The Rakos House in person now, I can see why you like it. There is a lot to be loved from the general design (seemingly heavily inspired by Bronx's World of Birds), the planting and the exciting species line-up. But I kept thinking, if only each enclosure was 2 metres deeper.... In many places, and especially in the walkthrough, it just feels too narrow and I thought many aviaries were already on the small size, though birds seemed generally relaxed. There is in some aviaries also the standard Czech practice of overstocking (though Dvur and Plzen are certainly worse offenders). In many ways a lovely house, but it ain't making my top-3 . Somehow Prague is capable of creating interesting new exhibits on a regular basis, but they always leave some things to be desired....

I did upload a fresh set of pictures from the house in the gallery.