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An aviary is a zoo for birds.
The National Aviary is in Pittsburgh, PA.
It is a place where birds are cared for and studied.
Our former counselor’s son, David Lowe, presents
educational programs about birds, especially raptors to lots
of different people. He recently came to our school, and we interviewed
him about his work with birds.
1.
Where
do you get your birds from?
A small number of birds have come from the wild for a number of
different reasons, including injury and confiscation.
The large majority of our birds have been hatched in captivity,
either here at the Aviary or from other institutions.
To maintain actively changing exhibits for our visitors we will
quite frequently buy, sell, trade and loan birds to and from other
institutions.
2.
How
do the zoologists take care of the birds?
The bulk of the care given to our birds is done by our animal care
staff. They are tasked with
feeding the birds everyday and cleaning their enclosures, including
birds on and off exhibit. Being
that there are many birds with many different food preferences, we need
to provide a range of food types using different methods of dispersal.
The foods are prepared in our kitchen.
Other things that animal care staff does, include releasing and
capturing birds into and out of their exhibit, treating sick and injured
birds, and designing and building new exhibits, among other things.
3.
How
are the habitats/displays designed? Are the habitats designed like
bird’s natural surroundings?
The habitats are designed to simulate the bird’s natural surrounds.
Aviary exhibits are arranged geographical as if you were on a
world tour. Our smaller
exhibits are rooms approx. 20L X 10D X 12H and larger and feature a
small number of birds from individuals region.
The two large free-flight rooms are large greenhouse type
buildings that house over 80 birds in each.
Visitors can walk into the free-flight rooms, where they can
stand in front of the smaller exhibits and can see and hear birds
through mesh barriers.
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