Quick facts
Location (indicated in orange on the map): Wild Animal
Park, past entrance turnstiles
Habitat/Region featured: African wetlands, forest, and savanna
Size: 142 feet (43 meters) long, 45 feet (14 meters) wide,
30 feet (9 meters) high
Opening date: 1998
Nearest dining facility: Congo Kitchen
Be sure to look for…
Jacanas
Hammerkops
Bearded barbets
Black herons
Open-bill storks
Horticultural highlights
Jacaranda
Chinese flame tree
Giant bird-of-paradise
Brazilian butterfly tree
Pineapple guava
More
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African Aviary
How to view
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Out of Africa
The bearded barbet is one of the many birds you'll encounter in the African
Aviary.
Enter the winged world of the African Aviary at the Wild Animal Park, where you can be close to and often interact with feathered beauties. You might see a bearded barbet dart in front of you and vanish into the protective shelter of a broad-leafed plant. Overhead, wings disturb the air and your ears fill with chirps, cackles, and hoots, the sounds of flourishing avian life from Africa.
The African Aviary, just beyond the Wild Animal Park's entrance turnstiles, is designed to show a wide variety of African birdlife. Some of the species are rare in the wild and others are seldom seen in collections. There are no moats, no barriers. You could literally reach out and touch the birds if they would let you. But they won't! Step too close and they nimbly hop away or flutter to an inaccessible branch. Nonetheless, you are closer to them than would be possible in the shadows of an African forest. You are a guest in their enclosure!
Everything in the aviary is designed to approximate the birds' natural turf—from the concrete footpath, poured in the color and texture of dried mud, to the rock outcroppings and waterfalls that spill into marshes, where black herons and African open-bill storks strut. The meandering path begins in wetland, wanders through forest, and ends in savanna. Terrestrial, midlevel, and upper canopies of vegetation provide a variety of habitats for birds to nest and forage in.
Each time you visit it's likely that you'll see something different. Be sure to pause now and then for a bird's-eye view of African avian life in action!
Fun facts
- The Wild Animal Park has the only group of black herons in the country.
- There are over 80 birds living in the African Aviary, representing about 25 species.
- The keeper staff provides man-made tree cavities for the birds—contraptions much like garden-variety birdhouses. Platforms and baskets for nests and any other materials needed to make nest building possible are also provided.
- Two residents of the aviary, the waldrapp and the pink pigeon, are endangered.
