We have 6 species of birds currently on show at the zoo. These are ostrich, Mindanao bleeding-heart dove, European turtle dove, Mauritian pink pigeon, African village weaver and Visayan tarictic hornbill.
Our two ostriches, Mary and Drummer, live by the entrance to the site. You can find the other bird species in the Walled Garden, along with the meerkats.
African village weavers make amazing ball-shaped nests – look out for them in the trees in their aviary during their breeding season. Males weave the nests to attract a female and will destroy the nests that didn’t attract a mate!
A number of our bird species are classified as Vulnerable, Endangered, Critically Endangered and Extinct in the Wild by the IUCN and are part of conservation breeding programmes. We’ve recently successfully bred a Visayan hornbill chick — you can see him in the aviary with his parents!
We initially have common ostriches to give our keepers experience working with these birds. We are then planning to change these for the Critically Endangered red-necked ostrich, which we will breed for conservation purposes.
You can see the birds in their aviaries in the walled garden. They have varied vegetation and places to hide if they want to, plus plenty of perches.
The ostriches have an area by the entrance of the site, with sandy ground to dig in and fresh grass at the back of the area to graze.
You can catch the ostrich talk at weekends and school holidays at 10.30am.
