just north of Oamaru (between Dunedin and Christchurch) is the Landon Creek Bird Sanctuary. I've been past a few times without time to stop but in December I finally managed to visit. I had been expecting some good things seeing as how the publicity says it is NZ's largest private bird collection open to the public ("ranging from the beautiful Blue and Gold McCaws [sic] to the amazing array of African Greys" says the pamphlet). The sign outside says there are 144 aviaries. I didn't count them but that seems about right. The trouble was, half of them were empty!
The visit started all right with a tame grey parrot in a cage at the entrance (the only specimen of "the amazing array" of this species they appeared to have) and then an aquarium/terrarium section that had a certain home-made charm. There is also a small paddock area with a tame pony, ostrich and emu. The aviary section, however, let down what could have been a child-friendly family place. All the aviaries are in two blocks and they are just the standard bare breeding-cage type aviaries. Many of them didn't even have perches and the parrots were simply clinging to the mesh walls. The only interesting species from my point of view (due to their being uncommon in NZ) were the blue-crowned and peach-fronted conures. And as stated before, about half the aviaries were empty, and most were very unclean. Terrified pairs of greenfinches were cohabiting with macaws and cockatoos! Outside one aviary was a white dove with an open wound on its back. Someone else I talked to later said he had seen decomposing galahs in aviaries there. It appears to be the case that the care of the collection had got too much for the owners and it has been steadily degrading for quite a while.
Final verdict: avoid!
blue-crowned conure
water dragon enclosure
one of the aviary blocks. Almost the entire right row was housing pairs of sulphur-crested cockatoos!
The visit started all right with a tame grey parrot in a cage at the entrance (the only specimen of "the amazing array" of this species they appeared to have) and then an aquarium/terrarium section that had a certain home-made charm. There is also a small paddock area with a tame pony, ostrich and emu. The aviary section, however, let down what could have been a child-friendly family place. All the aviaries are in two blocks and they are just the standard bare breeding-cage type aviaries. Many of them didn't even have perches and the parrots were simply clinging to the mesh walls. The only interesting species from my point of view (due to their being uncommon in NZ) were the blue-crowned and peach-fronted conures. And as stated before, about half the aviaries were empty, and most were very unclean. Terrified pairs of greenfinches were cohabiting with macaws and cockatoos! Outside one aviary was a white dove with an open wound on its back. Someone else I talked to later said he had seen decomposing galahs in aviaries there. It appears to be the case that the care of the collection had got too much for the owners and it has been steadily degrading for quite a while.
Final verdict: avoid!
blue-crowned conure
water dragon enclosure
one of the aviary blocks. Almost the entire right row was housing pairs of sulphur-crested cockatoos!
