World's Best Bird Houses
- Thread starter KCZooFan
- Start date
It's been a few years since I was there, and sometimes with the tropical climate it is hard to tell if you are inside or outside at Jurong. if I recall correctly, you pass throught doors to enter the SE Asian birds section, and there is an artificial rainstorm daily, so I remembered it as being like a house even though the roof may be mesh.
)
Sun Wukong
Well-Known Member
When talking about vast bird collections behind the scenes, one shouldn't forget to mention Plzeň...
I'm pretty sure the southeast Asian aviary is a walk-through aviary rather than a building, but there are smaller aviaries situated around the footpath that runs through it. I believe you are right though that you enter through a sort of enclosed porch. As zoomaniac said the only actual buildings (at least as far as I can recall) are the dire nocturnal house, the penguin house, and the hummingbird section of the Neotropical aviaryPygathrix said:
Although it is some years since I have visited the Bronx Zoo, and indeed the World of Birds is a fantastic bird house from all sorts of angles, the building that made the WoB possible and possibly introduced the idea of immersion exhibits is the Bronx Zoo's aquatic bird house. Albeit on a smaller scale, it still knocks spots of most bird houses.
The Aquatic Bird House was certainly the "beta test" progenitor of the World of Birds, and for its time really pushed zoo exhibitry forward. However, it can in no way be characterized as an immersion exhibit. There are open-fronted displays, and nicely-detailed (for the time) diorama-type habitats. But the public spaces are very much separate, architectural hallways, with a very dated tile and concrete aesthetic. To qualify as "immersion" the sense of habitat would extend into the public area to blur the boundaries between animal and people spaces.
The ABH was the first in a long line of brilliant exhibits built at the Bronx Zoo under William Conway's direction. For that reason alone it is worth visiting and, some day, renovation and updating.
Point taken on the definition of immersion exhibit. So what would one call that type of very natural, open fronted, in most cases, very naturalistic exhibit? At the previous end of the spectrum we have the "gents' toilet", and at the other side immersion, but I cannot recall whether the style of exhibit exemplified in the Bronx Zoo's bird houses has a descriptive name.
I've heard the phrase "jewel box" applied to this sort of thing, or simply "diorama." The green tile hallways of the ABH, combined with the powerful odors emenating from the open-fronted displays of fish-excreting birds, does bring to mind the "gents' toilet" impression, unfortunately.
WOB was originally mostly done in a similar style, although it included two big walk-through spaces (sort of immersion). But recent renovations have created a bit more of a hybrid--with elements of the bird's exhibit habitats creeping into the public hallways in a rather pleasing way.
I wonder why no one mentioned the bird houses in Hamburg and Krefeld, they are very good too! The bird house in Augsburg doesn't look special but has a great collection. My personal favourites are: Wuppertal,Berlin (both have great collections, but Wuppertal has a much cooler architecture) and Frankfurt (gorgeous house, bad species stock).
Bronx, definitely -- Golden-headed Quetzal, Lesser Bird of Paradise, Lesser Vasa Parrot, Splendid Sunbird, White-crested Hornbill an entire colony of White-throated Bee-eaters -- very cool place. The Aquatic Bird House is also nice but World of Birds excels in comparison.
Denver's was very nice and had lots of rarities back in 2002 such as Toucan Barbet and Blue-naped Chlorophonia.
I remember San Antonio's being very dark but having a fantastic collection in 1997. Almost every exhibit had 5 or more species, some upwards of 15.
Philadelphia's is new and while it only has four major sections, it's clean, the birds are very tame, and the overall impact is great. Notable species -- Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Ivory-billed Aracari, Little Tinamou, Yellow-knobbed Curassow, Hawaii Amakihi.
National Zoo's is OK but always seems empty to me. Some great rare species in there though -- Guam Rail/Kingfisher, Blue-billed Curassow, Brown Kiwi. It also has Lilac-breasted Rollers which are unfortunately being phased out of U.S. zoos.
And also...the National Aviary in Pittsburgh is basically a gigantic version of the average zoo's Bird House, with two walk-through sections, numerous hall exhibits and outside pheasant/raptor enclosures.
I would love to make it to Berlin, Wuppertal, Walsrode and Veldhoven someday. They all sound spectacular.
Denver's was very nice and had lots of rarities back in 2002 such as Toucan Barbet and Blue-naped Chlorophonia.
I remember San Antonio's being very dark but having a fantastic collection in 1997. Almost every exhibit had 5 or more species, some upwards of 15.
Philadelphia's is new and while it only has four major sections, it's clean, the birds are very tame, and the overall impact is great. Notable species -- Crimson-rumped Toucanet, Ivory-billed Aracari, Little Tinamou, Yellow-knobbed Curassow, Hawaii Amakihi.
National Zoo's is OK but always seems empty to me. Some great rare species in there though -- Guam Rail/Kingfisher, Blue-billed Curassow, Brown Kiwi. It also has Lilac-breasted Rollers which are unfortunately being phased out of U.S. zoos.
And also...the National Aviary in Pittsburgh is basically a gigantic version of the average zoo's Bird House, with two walk-through sections, numerous hall exhibits and outside pheasant/raptor enclosures.
I would love to make it to Berlin, Wuppertal, Walsrode and Veldhoven someday. They all sound spectacular.
Birdman7487
Well-Known Member
North carolina has a nice bird exhibit and has bred species such as golden whiteyes(first time in captivity), bali myna, golden-headed manakin, victoria crowned pigeon, and grey-headed kingfisher among others
Zooplantman
Well-Known Member
The frustrating thing about this thread is that once I got curious and went to the Zoochat Gallery hoping to see these bird houses what I mostly found were 2,543,901 pictures of individual birds and 4 pictures of the actual bird houses! 
Two collections with great Birdhouses not mentioned before - and unfortunatly also not existing anymore 
- are the birdhouse of Wassenaar Zoo ( the Netherlands ) and Birdpark Metelen ( Germany ).
Wassenaar made zoo-history by creating the first birdhouse which was actualy a greenhouse. The birds did very well in this natural-light hall and many breeding archiefment were reached here - the world first breeding attemp of Pesquet's parrots ( not succesfull ), hornbills, crowned- nicobar and lots of other pigeon species, white woodpeckers and so on.
While working at Walsrode, I talked with the founder mr. Geschke, and he told me that their tropical house was inspirated after seeing the one in Wassenaar.
Metelen had a small birdhouse but it was very nice decorated and the collection was exelent. The birds did very well and I remember a nice collection of several Bee-eaters and they had good breeding-results with Red and Yellow barbets.
Not mentioned either AND still exiting are the different birdhouses at Pairi Daiza ( Belgium ), Lay-out mostly quite simple but with some realy nice bird-species.
And last but not least not a real Birdhouse but a tropicalhouse in which the birds are the most prominent inhabitants : the Bush at Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands.
- are the birdhouse of Wassenaar Zoo ( the Netherlands ) and Birdpark Metelen ( Germany ).Wassenaar made zoo-history by creating the first birdhouse which was actualy a greenhouse. The birds did very well in this natural-light hall and many breeding archiefment were reached here - the world first breeding attemp of Pesquet's parrots ( not succesfull ), hornbills, crowned- nicobar and lots of other pigeon species, white woodpeckers and so on.
While working at Walsrode, I talked with the founder mr. Geschke, and he told me that their tropical house was inspirated after seeing the one in Wassenaar.
Metelen had a small birdhouse but it was very nice decorated and the collection was exelent. The birds did very well and I remember a nice collection of several Bee-eaters and they had good breeding-results with Red and Yellow barbets.
Not mentioned either AND still exiting are the different birdhouses at Pairi Daiza ( Belgium ), Lay-out mostly quite simple but with some realy nice bird-species.
And last but not least not a real Birdhouse but a tropicalhouse in which the birds are the most prominent inhabitants : the Bush at Burgers Zoo in the Netherlands.
What is the Antwerp cage system?
You have some lighted enclosures and a dark hallway where the visitors walk. There are no barriers between the birds and the visitors so in theory the birds could escape, which they don't as the visitors path is dark. It is a great idea but unfortunately not well executed in Antwerp.