Sylvan Heights Bird Park Sylvan Heights Species List - Dec 2021

[Coelacanth18]

Each line indicates one enclosure, unless preceded by a colon (in which case separate enclosures are indicated by / ). Species that were off-exhibit or unseen are in italics, but not for the walk-through aviaries (there were too many species for me to note everything). At this zoo many species went unseen; some of that may be the season (though it was unusually warm for December that day) and some of it is due to the sheer number of birds in the park. Unsigned species are preceded with (unsigned).

Note: this list may see some editing in the next 24 hours.

Visited December 2021
Link for Review: Slender Lorises, Duct Tape, and Whataburger: A Fish on Dry Land

Sylvan Heights Bird Park Species List

Entrance Aviary: Mallard, Freckled Duck, Green-winged Teal, Southern Pochard, North American Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Yellow-billed Pintail (South Georgia ssp), Blue-winged Teal, Wood Duck, Hooded Merganser, Common Eider, Red-crested Pochard, Rosy-billed Pochard, Marbled Teal, Smew, Redhead, Wandering Whistling Duck, Chiloe Wigeon, Mandarin Duck, White-faced Whistling Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Northern Pintail, Common Shelduck, Cape Teal, Laysan Teal, Ringed Teal, Cinnamon Teal, American Coot, Masked Lapwing, American Flamingo (unsigned) Canvasback, Bufflehead

Crowned Crane Aviary: Gray Crowned Crane, Abdim’s Stork (unsigned) African Sacred Ibis

Eurasian Aviary: Baikal Teal, Baer’s Pochard, Barrow’s Goldeneye, Chinese Merganser, Chinese Spot-billed Duck, Tufted Duck, Eurasian Teal, White-headed Duck, Common Pochard, Eurasian Wigeon, Falcated Duck, Ferruginous Duck, Garganey, Greater Scaup, Indian Spot-billed Duck, Mandarin Duck, Northern Pintail, Northern Shoveler, Philippine Duck, Red-breasted Goose, Red-crested Pochard, Ruddy Shelduck, Smew, Spotted Whistling Duck, Pied Avocet, Edwards’s Pheasant, Temminck’s Tragopan (unsigned) Northern Bobwhite, Common Shelduck

Yards across from Eurasian and North American Aviaries (didn’t keep track of order or mixes): Bar-headed Goose, Barnacle Goose, Mute Swan, Greylag Goose, Swan Goose, Emperor Goose, Trumpeter Swan, Greater White-fronted Goose (Tule ssp), Canada Goose (Dusky ssp), Greater Snow Goose, Sandhill Crane / Whooping Crane

Yard between Eurasian and North American Aviaries: Demoiselle Crane

North American Aviary: Bufflehead, Common Eider, Wood Duck, American Black Duck, Blue-winged Teal, Lesser Scaup, Green-winged Teal, Laysan Teal, Hawaiian Duck, American Wigeon, Northern Shoveler, Cinnamon Teal, West Indian Whistling Duck, Ross’s Goose, Hooded Merganser, North American Ruddy Duck, Gadwall, Common Merganser, Nene, Tundra Swan, Redhead, Canvasback, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Fulvous Whistling Duck, Ring-necked Duck, Common Goldeneye, Tricolored Heron, Snowy Egret, American White Ibis, Killdeer, Black-necked Stilt, Northern Bobwhite, Ring-necked Pheasant

Yards across from North and South American Aviaries: Red-legged Seriema / Saddle-billed Stork, Helmeted Guineafowl / Andean Goose, Hartlaub’s Duck, Ruddy-headed Goose, Upland Goose, Flying Steamer Duck

South American Aviary: Silver Teal, Yellow-billed Teal (both flavirostris and oxyptera ssp), Puna Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Rosy-billed Pochard, Southern Pochard, White-faced Whistling Duck, Fulvous Whistling Duck, Yellow-billed Pintail (South Georgia and Chilean ssp), Red Shoveler, White-cheeked Pintail, Brazilian Teal, Ringed Teal, American Comb Duck, Muscovy Duck, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Chiloe Wigeon, Argentine Ruddy Duck, Orinoco Goose, Coscoroba Swan, Chilean Flamingo, Scarlet Ibis, Roseate Spoonbill, Southern Lapwing, Blue-and-gold Macaw, Scarlet Macaw, Red-and-green Macaw, Hyacinth Macaw, Military Macaw, Blue-throated Macaw

African Aviary: African Black Duck, Cape Teal, Hartlaub’s Duck, Red-billed Teal, Blue-winged Goose, Garganey, Yellow-billed Duck, Blue-billed Teal, Knob-billed Duck, Madagascar Teal, Meller’s Duck, Maccoa Duck, White-faced Whistling Duck, Southern Pochard, Spur-winged Plover, African Grey Parrot, Speckled Pigeon, Hamerkop

Flamingo Aviary: Lesser Flamingo, Chilean Flamingo (unsigned) Flying Steamer Duck, Southern Lapwing, Comb or Knob-billed Duck

Australasian Aviary: Australasian Shoveler, Black Swan, Sunda Teal, Freckled Duck, Hardhead, New Zealand Scaup, Pacific Black Duck, Magpie Goose, Radjah Shelduck, Cape Barren Goose, Chestnut Teal, Maned Duck, Paradise Shelduck, Plumed Whistling Duck, Wandering Whistling Duck, Lesser Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Umbrella Cockatoo, Blue Crowned Pigeon, Masked Lapwing

Birds of Paradise Aviary (some free-flying, some in separate cages, some both; didn’t fully keep track of which was which): Golden Pheasant / Buff-crested Bustard / Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise / Crested Pigeon, Mulga Parrot, Luzon Bleeding-heart Dove, Blue Crowned Pigeon, Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Nicobar Pigeon, Sulawesi Ground Dove, Crested Quail-dove, Green-naped Pheasant-pigeon, Plum-headed Parakeet, Plush-crested Jay, Red-breasted Parakeet, Regent Parrot, Spur-winged Plover, Violet Turaco, Green Pygmy Goose (unsigned) European Blackbird, American Oystercatcher, Willet, Lesser Whistling Duck, White-winged Duck

Cage by Birds of Paradise Aviary: Laughing Kookaburra

Side yards and aviaries between Australasian and African Aviaries (entrance side): Emu, Egyptian Goose, Spur-winged Goose / Abyssinian Ground Hornbill / Southern Cassowary (two juveniles)

Cages at Far End of Park: Pink-eared Duck, Senegal Thick-knee, Black Crake, Black-throated Magpie-jay (unsigned) Red-billed Blue Magpie / King Vulture

Feeding Aviary: American Flamingo, Budgerigar, Common Moorhen, Crested Wood Partridge, Derbyan Parakeet, Gray Peacock-pheasant, Wandering Whistling Duck, Mulga Parrot, Nicobar Pigeon, Northern Rosella, Scarlet Ibis, Spur-winged Plover, Sun Conure, Victoria Crowned Pigeon, Violet Turaco, Major Mitchell’s Cockatoo (unsigned) Eastern Rosella

Set of 3 cages across from African and Australasian Aviaries (didn’t keep track of order or mixes): Gambel’s Quail, Montezuma Quail, Superb Starling, Azure-winged Magpie (unsigned) Green-naped Pheasant-pigeon, Crested Wood Partridge

Yards and aviaries between Australasian and African Aviaries (tropic building side): Lady Ross’s Turaco, Grey-winged Trumpeter, Emerald Starling, Blue-billed Teal, Silver Teal / White-winged Duck (unsigned) Philippine Duck, Blue Eared-Pheasant

Set of 3 cages next to tropic building (didn’t keep track of order or mixes): European Blackbird, Raggiana Bird-of-Paradise, Great Argus, Himalayan Monal, Green Peafowl (unsigned) Black-throated Magpie-jay

Standalone cage by Crowned Crane Aviary: Eurasian Eagle-owl

Wings of the Tropics (building)
Free-flying: White-backed Duck, Pink-eared Duck, African Jacana, African Pygmy Goose, Emerald Dove, Grosbeak Starling, Inca Tern, Orange-cheeked Waxbill, Red-billed Firefinch, Red-crested Turaco, Yellow-hooded Blackbird, Black-rumped Waxbill, Elegant Crested Tinamou, Guinea Turaco, Blue-billed Teal, Pin-tailed Whydah, Senegal Thick-knee, Snowy-headed Robin-chat (unsigned) Namaqua Dove, Gouldian Finch, Red-billed Quelea, Egyptian Plover, Brown-headed Cowbird, Sunbittern, Crested Quail Dove

Row of Cages: Ruff, White-rumped Shama / Plush-crested Jay / Rainbow Lorikeet, Sunbittern / Blue-bellied Roller / Fawn-breasted Bowerbird, Green-naped Pheasant-pigeon / Toco Toucan / African Fish Eagle / Burrowing Owl, Green Jay / (unsigned in one of the cages) Mountain Peacock-pheasant

I additionally saw a captive American Black Vulture outside with a staff member, presumably for training.

Birds: a lot (~240)
Other species: none, other than turtles in one aviary (unidentified, unsure if wild or captive)
Total: a lot of birds (~240)

 

[nczoofan]

They must have removed the two amphibian displays in the bathroom, but not a great loss for the park

 

[Coelacanth18]

They must have removed the two amphibian displays in the bathroom, but not a great loss for the park

If you mean the bathroom over at the end of the park where the King Vulture aviary and former Ruff aviary are, they did indeed; it's been replaced by this very cool egg display:

 

[nczoofan]

If you mean the bathroom over at the end of the park where the King Vulture aviary and former Ruff aviary are, they did indeed; it's been replaced by this very cool egg display:

Yep that was it. The egg display is definitely better given the parks focus though.

 

[Sarus Crane]

I thought some time ago Sylvan Heights was planning on bringing in more crane species such as Sarus and White-Naped or Red-Crowned? Perhaps that got postponed when Pandemonium Aviaries transferred their collection to make the new Birds of Paradise exhibit.

 

[nczoofan]

I thought some time ago Sylvan Heights was planning on bringing in more crane species such as Sarus and White-Naped or Red-Crowned? Perhaps that got postponed when Pandemonium Aviaries transferred their collection to make the new Birds of Paradise exhibit.

They had a white-naped at one point if I remember correctly. They may be off display right now or maybe no longer in the collection. They did plan a crane area before the pandemic and pandemonium transfer. They also were planning a penguin exhibit. I can imagine both are still in the plans, as the land remains. But just priorities changed and pandemic hurt financially.

 

[Sarus Crane]

They had a white-naped at one point if I remember correctly. They may be off display right now or maybe no longer in the collection. They did plan a crane area before the pandemic and pandemonium transfer. They also were planning a penguin exhibit. I can imagine both are still in the plans, as the land remains. But just priorities changed and pandemic hurt financially.

Yup, just what I figured. Hopefully this and next year will be a good year for them.

 

[geomorph]

What a stellar collection, was the exhibitry worthy of it?

 

[Coelacanth18]

What a stellar collection, was the exhibitry worthy of it?

I'm not well-versed in exhibit design and I tend to pay more attention to functional details than aesthetics, so my media will probably do more justice for explanation than my own thoughts can:

Waterfowl Aviaries:

Birds of Paradise Aviary:

Wings of the Tropics:

Miscellaneous:

 

[Junklekitteb]

The diversity of their waterfowl collection is honestly mind-boggling - some of those species I desperately want to see. The amount of waterfowl species made me curious which species are not in the collection, so I prepared this quick list:
Whistling-ducks: Fully represented.
Pochards and Scaups: Fully represented.
Teals and Pintails: Mostly island species that are missing; Eaton’s Pintail Anas eatoni, Andaman Teal Anas albogularis, Bernier’s Teal Anas bernieri and the various teals from New Zealand. Andean Teal Anas andium is also missing, but it is a split from Yellow-billed Teal Anas flavirostris which is present.
Other Dabbling Ducks: A number of species from the Americas, namely Mexican Duck Anas diazi, Mottled Duck Anas fulvigula, Crested Duck Lophonetta specularoides and Bronze-winged Duck Speculanas specularis. Cape Shoveler Spatula smithii is also missing. The wigeons and shovelers are otherwise fully represented.
Geese, Swans and Shelducks: The first group with a notable amount of missing species: Cotton Pygmy-goose Nettapus coromandelicus, Brant Branta bernicla, Cackling Goose Branta hutchinsii, Bean and Pink-footed Geese Anser fabalis/brachyrhynchus/serrirostris, Lesser White-fronted Goose A. erythropus, Black-necked Swan Cygnus melancoryphus, Whooper Swan Cygnus cygnus, Andean Goose Chloephaga melanoptera, Kelp Goose Chloephaga hybrida, Ashy-headed Goose Chloephaga poliocephala, South African Shelduck Tadorna cana and Australian Shelduck Tadorna tadornoides are all absent. I wonder if this is because many of them are larger birds, and therefore there may be a lack of space?
Sea Ducks and Steamer-ducks: The only real ‘shortcoming’ in terms of duck species in this park: all species of flightless steamer duck, scoters and the three ‘ornate’ eiders are missing, as well as Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator, Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis and Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus. I am once again guessing this is a practical difficulty? After all the park is quite south and these are polar species? The extremely rare Brazilian Merganser Mergus octosetaceus, to no one’s surprise is also not in the collection.
Other Ducks: A few species very rare outside of their range are understandably not kept: Musk Duck Biziura lobata, Blue-billed Duck Oxyura australis, Masked Duck Nomonyx dominicus, Torrent Duck Merganetta armata, Salvadori’s Teal Salvadorina waigiuensis, Blue Duck Hymenolaimus malacorhynchus. The Cuckoo Duck Heteronetta atricapilla, although kept in Europe, is absent from North America entirely.

 

[Coelacanth18]

Interesting read @Junklekitteb! I skimmed through Anatidae to see what kinds of things were missing but I didn't take the time to catalog. Only a couple misses:

Bernier’s Teal Anas bernieri

Andean Goose Chloephaga melanoptera

Both of these are in my list. Bernier's Teal is listed as Madagascar Teal.

I wonder if this is because many of them are larger birds, and therefore there may be a lack of space?

No idea. They've had some of those species in the recent past, like Black-necked Swan and Brant. Some of them might be off-display at the breeding compound.

Sea Ducks and Steamer-ducks: The only real ‘shortcoming’ in terms of duck species in this park: all species of flightless steamer duck, scoters and the three ‘ornate’ eiders are missing, as well as Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator, Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis and Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus. I am once again guessing this is a practical difficulty? After all the park is quite south and these are polar species?

They do have Common Eider, but that seems plausible. In the US eiders and sea ducks are held by a handful of northern zoos (at least two of which have them exclusively indoors) and Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Conservancy in Connecticut, which is the other waterfowl specialist facility I know of in the US.

It's worth noting that Sylvan Heights is the only American holder (besides private aviculture potentially) of some of these species, and many of the species they *don't* keep aren't held elsewhere in the US either. I'm only a data point of one, but of the ~90 waterfowl species I've seen in captivity only three of them weren't signed or seen at Sylvan Heights: Southern Screamer, Black-necked Swan and King Eider.

Using the two waterfowl threads created by @Great Argus, there are 18 species in captivity within North America not on display at Sylvan Heights; of those, at least 7 were on display in the recent past. Only 4 of the 11 that have never been reported from there aren't sea ducks or eiders... and reporting on here about Sylvan Heights has really only been going on since 2016.

 

[Aardwolf]

I feel like I have seen many of the species you've mentioned as missing at Sylvan Heights (none of the truly spectacular ones like torrent duck or blue duck, but king eider, Andean goose, black-necked swan, Australian shelduck, etc. Sylvan is also the only facility that I've seen Heteronetta at. Many of the birds that you mentioned may have been in the breeding center at the time of your visit - Sylvan maintains enormous off-exhibit aviaries in their adjacent breeding center. I know that's where I saw the black-heads (founder Mike Lubbock was the first aviculturalist to successfully breed them).

If you get a chance, it's definitely worth a tour. I've been in the back a few times for work or conferences, but they also periodically open it up for tours (albeit not in the middle of an avian influenza outbreak).

 

[Great Argus]

Sea Ducks and Steamer-ducks: The only real ‘shortcoming’ in terms of duck species in this park: all species of flightless steamer duck, scoters and the three ‘ornate’ eiders are missing, as well as Red-breasted Merganser Mergus serrator, Long-tailed Duck Clangula hyemalis and Harlequin Duck Histrionicus histrionicus. I am once again guessing this is a practical difficulty? After all the park is quite south and these are polar species?

The park isn't that far south; San Diego keeps Harlequin for that matter. All three scoter and the Red-breasted Merganser winter as far south as Mexico and Florida, a couple species a bit further.

 

[Aardwolf]

To say nothing of the success that Pinola in Louisiana has had with Arctic waterfowl

 

[Junklekitteb]

Only a couple misses:

Both of these are in my list.

I feel like I have seen many of the species you've mentioned as missing at Sylvan Heights

Some of them might be off-display at the breeding compound.

Sylvan maintains enormous off-exhibit aviaries in their adjacent breeding center.

Sorry for any errors, like I said I made the list a bit quickly, only using a couple sources, so I apologise for any errors. I was not aware of such extensive off-exhibit facilities or the species they held, so I did not consider them. I originally made this list for my own sake, but I thought it would promote a bit of discussion if I posted it. I guess it’s too late to edit the list now.

The park isn't that far south; San Diego keeps Harlequin for that matter. All three scoter and the Red-breasted Merganser winter as far south as Mexico and Florida, a couple species a bit further.

To say nothing of the success that Pinola in Louisiana has had with Arctic waterfowl

I keep forgetting the New World is much colder at similar latitudes than Europe/Africa. I didn’t know red-breasted mergansers come that far south, now that I see it they’re found along the Pakistani coast even.

 

[BerdNerd]

Not 100% sure if it's still there, but on my visit in September, there was an unsigned hummingbird in Wings of the Tropics. A keeper told me that it was a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.

As an additional plus, she also told me they were soon planning on bringing more hummingbird species to the park, including Costa's and Broad-Billed.

I couldn’t get any good shots of the hummingbird, these are the best ones I have:

 

[drill]

Not 100% sure if it's still there, but on my visit in September, there was an unsigned hummingbird in Wings of the Tropics. A keeper told me that it was a Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.

As an additional plus, she also told me they were soon planning on bringing more hummingbird species to the park, including Costa's and Broad-Billed.

I couldn’t get any good shots of the hummingbird, these are the best ones I have:

View attachment 529854

View attachment 529855

They had/ have both of those species already

 

[Coelacanth18]

I didn't see any hummingbirds in the aviary, but if they're unsigned I wouldn't have been looking for them. It's good to hear they might be bringing in more; apparently hummingbirds were once more common in captivity but that's certainly not the case now.

 

[DavidBrown]

Does this place have any plans for a penguin collection to accessorize their waterfowl collection?

 

[nczoofan]

Does this place have any plans for a penguin collection to accessorize their waterfowl collection?

They did prior to covid (the other main plan was for a crane complex). They hasn’t been mentioned since. As well the acquisition of the Pandemonium Aviaries birds from California pushed them back as a focus.