Wisbroek Breeding Center Review Wisbroek Breeding Center ( with species list )

vogelcommando

vogelcommando

Well-Known Member
10+ year member
Yesterday my wife and I visited Wisbroek Breeding Center. This is a privat breeding center normaly not open to the public but once a year they open their gates for people intrested in birds. At 10 o'clock we were let in and after a cup of coffee we started to view the collection. Several animalkeepers were at the place to inform the visitors about the work done by this center. Wisbroek is internationaly known for it's breeding-results with cranes, ibisses, hornbills and toucans and several other bird-species and indeed the collection was very impressive and well taken care for !
The collection is actually housed in 1 central hall with on both sides large outside aviaries. It was mainly the outside aviaries which could be viewed ( the inside of the hall could only be viewed for a very small part - food kitchen, one occupied and one empty indoor-aviary ). Next to the pathway along the outside aviaries ( on this side mainly Toucans, Aracaries and Hornbills ) there were on the other side large enclosures for cranes and some other birds. At the end of this first row there were 2 superb aviaries for Bee-eaters, Waders, Waterfowl and other birds and these 2 aviaries are mong the best aviaries I've seen sofar and breeding aviaries seemed to be enormous ( for example 21 Bee-eaters ( White-throated or White-fronted, I forgot which one was mentioned ) bred alone this year !).
Along these 2 aviaries we reached the other side of the hall and here Birds of prey, storks, ibisses, more Hornbills and some other birds were housed in the out-door aviaries. At the other side of the pathway some large enclosures for 3 species of Kangaroos and at the end of this pathway a large pond with waterfowl can be found.
A little away from the central Hall and it's outside aviaries there is an enormous Free-fligth aviary ( no walk-through ) in which a large colony of Chilian flamingos, Scarlet ibisses and many more bird-species are kept and bred.
On the Webside ( Wisbroek Breeding Center | Wisbroek | Wisbroek ) and from several other sources I heared that Wisbroek is / was also working with Cotingas ( For example Cock of the Rocks ) and Tanagers but I didn't see any of these. It's possible that these birds are kept at another location (?) or inside the hall which wasn't public but even without these Cotingas and Tanagers the collection was very impressive and I've tried to make an as complete as possible list of species kept during my visit :
Cranes :
Black-necked
Sandhill no subspecies mentioned
Black Crowned crane
Grey Crowned crane -a number of young on display either Black and / or Grey
Stanley - also a young seen together with the Crowned crane young
White-naped
Australian Brolga - at least 2 pairs
Sarus
Red-crowned
European
Wattled
Storks and Ibisses :
Scarlet ibis - in the Free-flight with lots of young
Black-faced ibis
Southern bald ibis
European white stork
Sattle-billed stork
Yellow-billed stork
African openbill
Boat-billed heron
Chilian flamingos - in the large Free-flight
Hornbills :
Abyssinian Ground hornbill
Rhinoseros - subspecies silvestris
Palawan - a first-timer for me !
Writhed
Luzon Tarictic - only one seen
Celebes - several pairs seen
Blyth's - at least one breeding-pair and several of their young
Wreathed
White-crested
Philippine brown
Asian pied
Toucans :
Guianan toucanet
Curl-crested aracari - bred succesfully
Ivory-billed aracari - subspecies flavirostris
Black-necked aracari
Red-billed toucan - bred succesfully
Green aracari
Toco toucan - several pairs seen
Keel-billed toucan
Bee-eaters, Rollers and Kingfishers :
Carmine bee-eater
White-throated bee-eater
White-fronted bee-eater - either this of the White-throated bred succesfully
Red-throated bee-eater
Blue-cheeked bee-eater
Racket-tailed roller
White-throated kingfisher
Kookaburra
Birds of prey :
Black-chested Buzzard eagle ( Chilian eagle ) - 2 still very young birds
Steller's sea-eagle
Golden eagle
White-tailed sea-eagle
Verraux's eagle - at least 2 pairs seen
African Fish eagle
Secretary bird
Other birds :
Great blue touraco - signs on several aviaries, none seen
White-crested touraco - bred succesfully
Lady Ross touraco
Southern lapwing
Blacksmith plover
Egyptian plover
Avocet
Black-winged stilt
Inca tern
Hoopoe - sign on aviary, not seen
Victoria crowned pigeon
Red-breasted crowned pigeon
Nicobar pigeon
Black-naped grebe - bred succesfully
African pygmy goose
Eider
Bufflehead
Red-breasted goose
Goldeneye
Argus pheasant
Bali mynah
Australian white-backed magpie - in several aviaries
Black and red broadbill
European golden oriole
White-rumped shama - signed but not seen
Fairy bluebird - signed but not seen
Nightingale
Kangaroos :
Eastern wallaroo
Parma wallaby
Red kangaroo
As you see quite a list and I may have even missed some ! If I not mentioned it has bred succesfully, this doesn't mean it has not been bred but with the species it is mentioned it is in any case sure they bred.
As soon as one of the moderators has created a Gallery for Wisbroek, I will upload photos from this beautifull collection.
 
Last edited:
As I already thought, I did forget some :
Spur-winged plover
Ruff
Buff-necked ibis - signed but not seen
 
It is a really nice collection. Been to visit last year on an Open Day. Their hornbill / arassari collection was more or less in part assembled from the Papegaaienpark N.O.P. (now Zoo Veldhoven) stock.

Whereas the collection is very much a commercial enterprise, the owner and his staff are very much into conservation breeding.

I really do hope the private sector is allowed more access to EAZA / EEP's as the zoos could (and vice versa) benefit enormously from the private sector aviculturists (and provide more desperately needed spaces for threatened / endangered and rarely kept species. In this the EAZA could do itself a favour or ... :)
 
Kifaru Bwana said:
Whereas the collection is very much a commercial enterprise, the owner and his staff are very much into conservation breeding.
Click to expand...

Are they? The fact that the great touracos were not in their enclosures, is that they were confiscated because they were illegal (among others). Would it not be difficult for zoos to work with such a private breeder? Can you still talk about conseration breeding if the origin of some birds was illegal and of some others doubtful?
 
persimon said:
Can you still talk about conseration breeding if the origin of some birds was illegal and of some others doubtful?
Click to expand...

It is certainly a very grey area; the flipside is to consider that many birds or indeed mammals that have been taken from the wild illicitly cannot be reintroduced into the wild. As such, if they fall into the hands of a more reputable public or private collection - for instance due to the seizure of an illegal collection and the subsequent dispersal of the collection by the authorities - it would be a wise decision to make use of the new blood to benefit any existing conservation breeding programme in my opinion.

To cite a highly improbable and theoretical example, if the authorities found an illegal private collection of a dozen wildcaught - and thus lacking the effects of inbreeding depression - Spix Macaws, they would certainly make sure said animals were used to inject new blood into the existing captive programme rather than destroying them or refusing to breed from them, no matter how dubious the origin of the birds.

Of course, this is a completely different scenario to the concept of zoos working actively *with* illegal animal traders to get new blood for species, something which would only encourage said trade.
 
Thanks for the info, vc - this has offered a possible explanation to how Olmense Zoo got Brolga and Black-necked Crane, which perplexed us when we there earlier in the month!
 
@ TLD I aggree completly with you, as long as we don't encorage the illigal wildlife trade, any specimen of a surtain ( endangered ) species should be housed in a collection able to keep and breed it. For example the Spix macaw, none of the founder-animals was exported legaly to the Philippines or Switserland but now it are these "illigal" animals which have saved the species ( for the time being ).
@ Maguari yes it is well possible that they came from Wisbroek because they have good breeding results with most of their cranes and many are sold to both privat and public collections.
 
Wisbroek is not the only bird breeding collection from where these crane species might have been sourced from. I personally know of 1-2 further breeders in NL that do ...

As for the rant over illegal sourcings: it is sad that often this policy is followed through to the extreme that confiscated stocks are a genetic / functional dead end. It should be in the mind of policy- and lawmakers that the confiscated stocks should immediately be turned over to zoo / conservation breeding facility premises and be allowed to become integrated with the current captive stocks (as long as the immediate goal remains conservation breeding). Reintroduction or rehabilitation to range countries is often not feasible, and thus the legacy of the confiscations will ultimately still benefit the conservation of these stocks / and their species / taxon.
 
the confiscated great toeracos were given to Avifauna, who had at least chick but it didn't survive (the parents fed it, but probably with the wrong leaves). I think that Avifauna send some to other zoos (Walsrode?).
 
Has anyone visited Wisbroek more recently ? I'm planning on going to the open day this year, and i wondered if anyone has a more up to date list of species kept? Also @Kifaru Bwana you mentioned that they are into conservation breeding, do you have any examples of this? Do they send birds to conservation projects etc. ? It's a very interesting place and i would like to learn more about it.
 
From the list above a few species are gone from what I've heard. Certainly the broadbills are gone.
 
Cephie said:
From the list above a few species are gone from what I've heard. Certainly the broadbills are gone.
Click to expand...

Visited today and as Cephie said there were several species not anymore visuable - which doesn't mean that they are not kept anymore but a large part of the collection was not visuable for the public, so maybe some ( or all ? ) species not seen anymore may be kept there.
I've still to work-out the complete list but from the storks, ibisses, herons and cranes the following species were not anymore on display :
- Black-necked crane
- Southern bald ibis
- Yellow-billed stork
- African openbill
- Boat-billed heron
Next to the species not on display anymore, also a number of species not on display during my visit in 2015 were now visuable. Most remarkeble were a large number of Guianan and Andean cock-of-the Rocks and no less then 3 species of Bird of paradise :
- King bird of paradise
- Red bird of paradise
- Lesser bird of paradise
As soon as I've worked-out the complete list, I will place it here.
 
Worked out the Toucan and Hornbills :
Species not longer on display :
- Guianan toucanet
- Black-necked aracari
- Red-billed toucan
- Green aracari
- Keel-billed toucan
- Abyssinian ground hornbill

Species not on display 2015 but on display 2017 :
- Emerald toucanet ( bred succesfully 2017 )
- Collared aracari - 2 subspecies kept : ssp torquatus and ssp nuchalis
- Spot-billed toucanet
- Plate-billed mountain toucan
- Saffron toucanet
- Blue-throated toucanet
- Many-banded aracari
- From the Ivory-billed aracari 2015 the ssp flavirostris was on display. This ssp is still in the collection and a second ssp was new : ssp mariae
- Humboldt's aracari
- Black-throated toucanet

From the Luzon tarictic I had seen only 1 specimen in 2015, this time several pairs were on display and the species was bred succesfully during 2017.
From the Philippine brown hornbill the subspecies were not mentioned in 2015, this year the several pairs were signed to subspecies-level, 3 - 4 pairs each of ssp hydrocorax and ssp mindanensis.
Photos of all these (sub) species will be uploaded later.
 
Just discovered I forgot one Hornbill-species "new" to the collection ( i.g. not on display 2015 but seen on my visit yesterday :
- Sunda wrinkled hornbill
 
Worked-out some more of the changes since 2015 :
Bee-eaters:
3 species seen 2015 were not any longer on display :
White-throated bee-eater
White-fronted bee-eater
Blue-cheeked bee-eater

Kingfishers: 2 species seen during 2015 but none this time. For the White-throated kingfisher I realy tried to find it but the Kookaburra could have still be there but I actually didn't try to find it.

Hoopoe was signed 2015 but I didn't find it, now I saw at least 3 specimens.

Birds of prey:
A large row of aviaries containing birds of prey were constructed new but were not acceseble and could be viewed only from a distance or not at all. Only 3 - also new - aviaries were viewable for the visitors, containing species I had seen already during 2015 ( Steller sea-eagle, African fish eagle and Verreaux eagle. In the "of-show" aviaries I could see 2 species not seen during 2015 :
Andean condor
Unidentified eagle-species

Species not seen were:
Black-chested buzzard-eagle
Golden eagle
White-tailed sea-eagle
Secretary bird

Complete new was a small row of aviaries for owls ( none seen in 2015 ). Species kept at these aviaries are:
Spectacled owl
Verreaux eagle owl
Great horned owl ( Northern subspecies )
Great grey owl
Ural owl
 
Bird of prey species list for wisbroek:
Andean condor
crested caracara
steller's sea eagle
golden eagle
bald eagle
martial eagle
black chested buzzard eagle
white tailed sea eagle
Verreaux black eagle
African fishing eagle

snowy owl
ural owl
spectacled owl
asian brown wood owl
Eurasian eagle owl
great horned owl
great grey owl
Milky eagle owl

King vultures, secretary birds- no longer kept
 
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