Bronx Zoo Lila Acheson Wallace World of Birds

This was only a few years ago...and from what this page says, San Diego is the 2nd largest collection of birds in the world (after Jurong in Singapore). The SD zoo has 438 species listed. I haven't been to the Berlin Zoo, but I'd think these lists would be at least more accurate than this...the zoos where I have seen most of the birds on display have accurate lists.

The page with this information is here:
Zoo.asp
 
If it is only a couple of years old, then i must tell you is extremely wrong, all this info can be found in the Berlin Zoo website going all the way back to 2004, and i have all the English published guides, as well as some of the German editions, and there was never a recent year where the bird collection in the WORLD'S SECOND BIGGEST COLLECTION, was that number, as i explain to you before, ISIZ is very accurate when it comes to North American collecitons, maybe even some europeans, but very unreliable when it comes to Berlin Zoo, and having visited San Diego Zoo back in april, and birds being one of my highlights i can tell you from a first hand account that they have nothing on Berlin Zoo, at least when i was there anyways, San Diego Zoo does have a fine collection of very rare bird species, and what is even more important an incredible breeding record in some of them, Berlin has lost a lot of their species due to them not breeding, and some being impossible to get from the wild, but as of right now Berlin has the second largest collection outside of Jurong,

One thing to consider is that the Zoological society of San Diego has the Wild Animal Park as well, and i'm sure they keep a lot of bird species off exhibit, so there is allways the chance that their collection put together is even bigger, that would explain the 438 species, and it could certantly make them the top place to see birds outside of Singapore.

But the point is that 189 species in Berlin Zoo is inaccurate, in the main birdhouse along they have possibly over that number of species.
 
LOL, before explaining so much i should have checked the site you posted, it lists Berlin Zoo to have 1 reptile species, now you see what i mean, check it out, it has no accurate information in any of the Berlin Zoo animal collections, 0 Amphibians.

And for the record, the Zoological Society of San Diego might very well have the second largest collection in the World it is possible, but there is not a single exhibit in the World that has a bigger number of species than the main birdhouse in Berlin Zoo, i will be visiting Singapore in December so i will keeping an eye on their Birdpark.

PS: from the research that i have done in Jurong i haven't learned that they have a single aviary that houses more than 200 species, and they would really have to come close to this number to beat the Berlin Zoo's birdhouse building.
 
When it comes to sheer number of species, I think Walsrode and NOP (parrot refuge in Oerle, Netherlands) would be around the top positions in Europe (Walsrode almost certainly topping the list).

When it's just architecture and bird buildings, i haven't seen Berlin yet. But Antwerp, Artis, Wroclaw and Wuppertal were very decent indeed. The greenhouses in Avifauna and Walsrode were also nice, and house the most species i've seen. The price for oddest building goes to Prague's Sichuan house, a very nice, architecturally structured greenhouse solely build for birds from Sichuan and constructed very recently (what zoo's have build birdhouses after 2000?).
 
I guess noone has the list of current bird species at the Berlin Zoo?

All I can say for sure is the San Diego Zoo and Animal Park are listed separately on that site and these both have large numbers of bird species, though more are able to be seen at the zoo. Everywhere you look there's an aviary. As I said before I haven't been to Berlin. Many of the reptile lists on that site are inaccurate. There are many zoos who have only entered 1 or 2 species as well. I'm guessing the same is true for Berlin, sort of - they've only entered about a 3rd or so of their total bird collection.
 
I guess noone has the list of current bird species at the Berlin Zoo?

go to zootierliste.de and type Berlin.

It is not complete (focuses on rarer species) and indexed alphabeticaly not systematicaly. But you can also look for Aktuelle/ehemalige - current/old species.

*** just found out:

You can also go to: Erweiterte Suche
and choose Berlin and Voegel
 
And this is not to say, that you are not right in your statement of zoos do not invest like they maybe should in birds, but like all things done many years back WOB was at the time (based on what i have read) a jewel, and they invested a great amount of money for those times, can it be done better today? sure, and with the excessive amount of imagination that i have i can probably come up with a massive design in a week's time, but like you said, zoos will just not put all this money into a bird exhibit, a shame if you ask me, imagine what a state of the art, zoo birdhouse, with a world class collection could look like, where you could find, penguins in Antartica, rainforest replicated in details, deserts, tropical island settings for rare endangered birds, a large circular center exhibit, replicating the andes, where condors could soar, this and so much more could be done in the right zoo, but it would probably cost over 100 million dollars (what i see in my mind) and no zoo would take that chance, but maybe i'm wrong, i hope i'm.


i like this idea for the making of a great birdhouse.

it could also include such exhibits that depict habitats such as the cloud forests of central and south america which are incredibly rich in bird species especially hummers and tanagers or another neat exhibit would be the central african rainforest or the birds of new guinea.

however the problem nowadays also to keep in mind is obtaining birds since many countrys do not allow the exportation of their birds such as colombia or brazil as it was much easier to collect birds from the wild back in the day

zoos i think with the callaboration of private aviculturalists should really begin to focus now on breeding certain birds as many once common species are dwindling in captivity. they should also if at all possible with the aid of local and foriegn governments obtain special permits to obtain species from certain countries willing to participate. Not all species of birds obtained in the wild have to be an endangered species as there are many common species in certain parts of the world that are very colorful and appealing to look at. This again however might be costly but possibly worth it as i would not like to go to a zoo and see their bird exhibit display nothing but a few domestic chickens, zebra finches, or fancy pigeon breeds
 
I read something once about a plan to collect exotic birds living in Hawaii (ie red-crested cardinals, red-vented bulbuls etc). This sounds like an ideal situation because you are not removing birds from their native habitat.
 
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That's a great idea! There's something like 60 species of birds that have been introduced to Hawaii that are still there, most from tropical America or Asia so with a few other species a tropical aviary for 1 of those regions would be easy to create.
 
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