Randuwa II: St. Louis Zoo: Aviary

Monday, December 30, 2024

St. Louis Zoo: Aviary

The Aviary is the third building (along with the Herpetarium and the Small Primate House) that was designed and built in the 1930's as part of the WPA initiative set into place by the Great Depression. It is a testament to the beauty and resilience of these structures that they still remain vital and fully functional. And it is the vision of a great institution like the St. Louis Zoo to seamlessly integrate state of the art modernization renovations within all three. I've never seen a more amazing Aviary than this one. The Habitats are all generous and flow with an organic design ethos that would make Temple Grandin proud! When it comes to design--this Aviary gets an A+.

As for the content of species, well, it's a mixed-bag. The majority of birds to be found here are ground birds. The dearth of song bird species is a definite negative. So if that's your bag, don't get your hopes up. Also, the further I went, the more I encountered the same species in additional habitats giving the sense that the place has got more kinds of birds than it does. Although, I will say that sometimes when it was difficult to see the bird in one habitat, it was much easier to see it in a different one.

The other interesting difference between this building of habitats and the other two aforementioned was the lack of signature species. With the exception of the Rhinoceros Hornbills, there weren't any showcase moments. I overheard one visitor comment that a Habitat under renovation had been thus for some time and wondered where the Toucans had gone in the interim. Toucans, now that would have been nice to have seen. The place has the bones, it just needs a little content polish to be A+ all around.

Adjacent to the Aviary are Bird Gardens and exterior aviaries for larger birds like raptors and Flamingos.