Which US zoo has the largest bird collection? I've often heard that San Diego Zoo has a large collection,but is it the largest collection,or is there a zoo in the US that exhibits more bird species?
Zoo with the Largest Bird Collection
- Thread starter Shellheart
- Start date
I'd be shocked if San Diego was not #1 for species, but other major zoos with huge bird collections include Houston and San Antonio. The two big bird zoos in the U.S. have 100 species (Tracy Aviary) and almost 150 species (National Aviary).
I don't know exactly howmany bird-species the Dallas World Aquarium has but from what I've heared they also should have a huge bird-collection !
Not necessarily all on display right now, Tracy Aviary has closer to 125 species currently.
The three bird zoos here in the southwest are Wildlife World, Houston, San Antonio. I would not be surprised if San Antonio is number one, but I would also not be surprised if San Diego is number one.
On my 20 day/65 zoo road trip I counted exactly 102 species on exhibit at Tracy Aviary and I really enjoyed that facility as almost everything has been either built brand-new or been revamped in the past decade. It doesn't surprise me to learn that there are even more birds behind the scenes.
Is 125 realy the highest number of birds in the US ??
In Europe birds are then a much more prominent part of collectios and species-numbers over 100 are actualy quite common.
Did a quick check on Zootierliste and found for the Netherlands:
Avifauna 294 species ( among them however also some (2? ) mammals
Ruinen 116, a very "small" and little known collection !
For Germany :
Walsrode 768 species !
Timmendorfer Strand / Niendorf 217 species
For Spain :
Palmitos Park 190 species
Loro Parque 481 species ( among these however also some mammals - gorilla, orcas and so on and reptiles - giant tortoises )
As said this was just a quick look and I'm sure collections like Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Prague will also have more then 100 bird-species each !
In Europe birds are then a much more prominent part of collectios and species-numbers over 100 are actualy quite common.
Did a quick check on Zootierliste and found for the Netherlands:
Avifauna 294 species ( among them however also some (2? ) mammals
Ruinen 116, a very "small" and little known collection !
For Germany :
Walsrode 768 species !
Timmendorfer Strand / Niendorf 217 species
For Spain :
Palmitos Park 190 species
Loro Parque 481 species ( among these however also some mammals - gorilla, orcas and so on and reptiles - giant tortoises )
As said this was just a quick look and I'm sure collections like Rotterdam, Amsterdam and Prague will also have more then 100 bird-species each !
Big yes, huge no. DWA has one of the worlds largest collections of birds from the Neotropics (South America, Central America and Caribbean), but not much outside this region. I guess less than 25 bird species that aren't Neotropical. If the size of their collection of birds from Asian and Africa was similar to the Neotropical, they'd be close to Walsrode!
125 is the approximate number at the Tracy Aviary. This is one of the large aviaries (zoo that specializes in birds) in USA, but it is far behind the largest bird collections at some general zoos. Unless there has been a recent change, San Diego has by far the largest bird collection in USA with 300+ species. Houston, San Antonio, DWA, Omaha, Denver, Cincinnati, St. Louis, Miami and Bronx are also quite a bit above 125, but still well behind San Diego.
However, Europe has more "mega" bird collections than any other continent. Walsrode is well above anything else and this is followed by Plzen (and Singapore's Jurong). The two Berlin's and San Diego are all in the same region with Loro Parque and Pairi Daiza not too far after. If you use Zootierliste for this, you have to make a much more detailed count. The numbers provided by zoos are usually the number of species. Zootierliste counts species, but also subspecies and variants. This inflates the number, especially in places such as Loro Parque where they have several subspecies of many of their species.
Another thing to keep in mind is that all the zoos and aviaries with large collections usually also have large off-show collections. This means that it would be impossible to ever see anywhere near the total number of species on a visit. For example, both Plzen and San Diego are notorious (among zoo visitors that would prefer to see everything!) for having very large off-show collections, including some real rarities.
Last edited:
TeamTapir223
Well-Known Member
While we're not sure of the species count the Columbus Zoo has 3 top notch aviaries,North America,Islands of Southeast Asia and African Forest.All 3 hold quite large and diverse collections.
Team Tapir223
Team Tapir223
I took the liberty of counting and Columbus has 109 bird species on display, while Cincinnati has approximately 113 on and off display.
Top bird collections from zoos I visited last year, by my count-
San Antonio - 147
Houston - 125
Wildlife World - 120
Cincinnati - 119
Sedgwick County - 114
Denver - 102
Omaha - 99
Tracy Aviary - 97
St. Louis - 91
Oklahoma City and Fort Worth - 87
Dallas WA came in at 77 species
San Antonio - 147
Houston - 125
Wildlife World - 120
Cincinnati - 119
Sedgwick County - 114
Denver - 102
Omaha - 99
Tracy Aviary - 97
St. Louis - 91
Oklahoma City and Fort Worth - 87
Dallas WA came in at 77 species
Anyone have a total amount of species for San Diego?
covered here: http://www.zoochat.com/22/list-species-exhibit-11-26-13-a-347320/ although note these are only on-show not total number on-site.
geomorph said:
Followed by:
uszoo said:
This confirms my hunch (based on observation with no actual counting). In my new book on southwest zoos, I state that the three major bird collections in the southwest are San Antonio, Houston, Wildlife Wolrd and that if I had to guess San Antonio had probably the most of the three.