Toledo Zoo: Aviary

 If you know me, you know how much I love a good herpetarium.  What you may not know is...I also LOVE a good Aviary.  Toledo Zoo has an outstanding Aviary!  It's in a vintage building, circa 1935--Great Depression public works era (like many of the great vintage structures at the zoo).  To one side is an exterior habitat that has been converted into a home for a Southern Cassowary, a large land bird native to the northeastern coast of Australia.  

From the moment you entered the main building you are engulfed in bird song.  The corridors lead you on a zigzag path full of areas with self enclosed aviaries and then free-fly rooms.  Nearly everywhere lush living vegetation and flora surround the birds.  I think the one exception was what I'll call the "budgie room" (although there were several other species in the free fly space as well).  While I recognized some species from other aviaries, I also encountered many, many new species.

The building ends with a couple of non-avian species, the Emperor Tam
arin and Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth, both from South America.  Of all the various things I got to see at the Zoo, this was perhaps my single favorite.

Overview from the southeastern end of the Crosswalk bridge.

Entrance to the Southern Cassowary (Casuarius casuarius) habitat

The main entrance to the Aviary proper

Rhinoceros Hornbill

Bucerus rhinoceros

Black-naped Fruit Dove

Ptilinopus melanospilus

Many-colored Fruit Dove

Ptilinopus perousii

Adjacent aviaries

Gadzooks!  The Budgie Room--Budgies and finches and parrots and friends, oh my!

Bourke's Parrot

Neophema bourkii

Crested Pigeon

Ocyphaps lophotes

Diamond Firetail Finch

Stagonopleura guttata

White-headed Buffalo Weaver

Dinemellia dinemelli

Superb Starling

Lamprotornis superbus

Violet-backed Starling (L-male, R-female)

Cinnyricinclus leucogaster

African Grey Parrot

Psittacus erithacus

Kagu

Rhynochetos jubatus

Emperor Tamarin

Saguinus imperator

Linnaeus's Two-toed Sloth

Choloepus didactylus

Side exit