Zoo Review: Bird Kingdom

Today, a review of truly one of the stranger zoological facilities that I've visited, Bird Kingdom.  

Located just across the border in Niagara Falls, Ontario (literally, you can see it from the American side of the falls), this attractions houses the world's largest free-flight indoor aviary.  Though the bird attraction itself is relatively recent (opening in June 2003), the site itself has been a tourist destination for over 100 years.  Built as a corset factory in the early 1900s, it was then converted a museum that, for a time, held the mummy of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses I (later repatriated to Egypt).  So, I'm not saying that the place is haunted, but...

Remnants of the old Niagara Falls Museum are still present, and included in the price of admission.  Also included is one of the facility's more picturesque attractions, a Javanese house from the 1800s, built of teak and constructed without any nails, which visitors can explore from inside and out.  The Javanese house is part of the main aviary, which brings us back to the animal attractions.

The main aviary is entered through a series of double doors, starting at the level of the canopy and meandering down to the forest floor, at the base of a towering waterfall.  There are about 40 species of birds represented in here, selected from across the tropical regions of Africa, Latin America, Australia, and Southeast Asia.  It's funny, but even before stepping foot inside, I was able to guess the identities of most of the species present - there seems to be a handful of bird species which just work very well in exhibits like these, and are the go-to "filler" species of many walk-through aviaries.  Included in their ranks are the scarlet ibis, pied imperial pigeon, superb starling, speckled pigeon, and great argus.  There are a few smaller aviaries set alongside the path with birds that don't tend to play as nice in mixed, walk-through aviaries, such as the larger parrots.  The exhibit space is semi-themed with the story of an explorer who's been searching for a lost valley populated only by birds, but it only seems to be brought up on occasion, and doesn't really add or subtract to the experience.

Tucked away in a corner of the main aviary (near the Javanese house, as a matter of fact), is a separate aviary in which visitors can feed rainbow lorikeets.

Besides the main aviary, there is a second, smaller walk-through aviary called the Small Bird Aviary, home to about twenty species of small birds, mostly passerines, but some doves and little parrots as well, all flying around a small central pond of turtles.  This indoor aviary is lit partially by windows from the outside, which provide a nice view of the Niagara River Gorge.  Other animal attractions include a discovery room, with a series of small bird cages (some of them essentially pet store caging), mostly with parrots and toucans, as well as some reptiles, and a small nocturnal gallery, where you'd reasonably expect to find owls, but don't.  Instead, there are skunks, poison dart frogs, and Egyptian fruit bats, among other species.

Bird Kingdom wasn't terribly to my taste - I found it a little cheesy, a little confusing (I somehow managed to miss some of the rooms on my first pass through, and had to double back), and not of special interest.  I've been much more impressed with other aviaries that I've been to, such as the spectacular Wings of Asia at Zoo Miami, or with bird collections that had higher quality habitats for smaller exhibits, such as World of Birds at the Bronx Zoo.  I couldn't compare it that favorably to, say, the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, even if the main aviary was much larger.

That being said, I'm cranky and jaded and have been to a lot of zoos and seen a lot of aviaries.  I can see how this place might have a very magical appeal for folks who have never seen anything like this, and it could be especially enchanting for children - provided they aren't afraid of birds, of course.  Or the vengeful ghosts of mummies.

Bird Kingdom