February 18th, 2005
This entry is for all my long lost friends at Shaver's Creek! All you bird geeks, here are some Asian and Australian and Indian peeps to whet your bird whistle. I never would have guessed that I would take the time to write all the Latin names on a pleasure bird tour, nor would I have ever guessed that I would possibly see some things that maybe even YOU have not. Ahhh the glory of it all. Since our visit to Jurong Bird Park, I have seen some of these birds in the wild and now I know what they are.

Last Sunday (Feb 13th) we decided to visit the Jurong Bird Park located at the furthest West MRT stop you could go to on the island. The Jurong Bird Park boasts over 9,000 birds belonging to more than 600 species and is one of the World's best in the conservation and display of birds in natural settings. It's successes include the world's largest breeding colony of Humboldt Penguins and the highly endangered Golden Conure (which we did not see). It is also the first in the world to breed the 12 wired Bird of Paradise and has the largest collection of Southeast Asian hornbills and the world's tallest man-made waterfall (which we also missed--oops!). Since it was a fair ways away, we decided to use public transportation and take advantage of the "AirCon" instead of riding our bikes, which would have left us dripping in sweat. This is what we saw getting off the MRT.


As you can see there are no bike racks. The bikes are just locked front tire to back tire. Now where did I put mine?


Public Trans. to the rescue!

Then, from the MRT, we walked a little ways to the main bus terminal where we hopped a bus that would take us directly to the front door of Jurong Bird Park. They have single deck and double decker busses all over the place. Your fee amt is based on whether your bus has AirCon or not. But, regardless, the fee is negligable compared to how much you would sweat getting to and fro walking long distances.


Here is the entrance to Jurong Bird Park. It cost us S$14 per person entry fee. That's about $8.50 USD. But you could get a $.25 ice cream cone from McD's right inside the door!


Before we even bought our ticket to enter the park, there was this exhibit with Roseate Spoonbills (platalea ajaja)...


...and Chilean Flamingos (phoenicopterus chilensis) These birds are listed as Endangered.


and this one, I should know the name, but sadly, it's the only one I didn't write down for some reason. You see this bird EVERYWHERE here!


Penguins on land


Penguins swimming.


In the Macaw court, we saw a variety of colors. And the colors were spectacular! Green, known as the Military Macaw (ara militaris)...


...red, known as the Scarlet Macaw (ara macao)


...and Blue, known as the Hayacinth Macaws (anodorhynchus hyacinthinus) What an amazing shade of blue!


Relax and watch the show!

We decided to check out the bird show before we went for our tour of the park. It was pretty entertaining. They had Macaws that spoke in different languages, English, Malay, Chinese, they could count and say phrases. They also had them do flight stunts around the audience and these Chilean Flamingos, came bounding out and did laps, dancing if you will (to pop music) around the podium, which if you look closely, you can see two small bicycles....yep, Macaw bicycle races were soon to follow.


Here is a Blue Kingfisher. This is one bird that you can see when you are out and about Singapore.


This is the back side of a Bird of Paradise. The tail feathers of these birds were so flowey and light they were hard to photograph when they moved about the cage.


Look at that plumage!

This was one of our favorite birds. It is a Common Crowned Pigeon (goura cristata). These birds were quite friendly and were interested in walking about your feet and what we learned after observing these birds with some other visitors, was if you were wearing red, or had your toenails painted red, the males would be very interested in you and you could even get some 'action'. It was very entertaining to watch.


And we were able to get quite close to them.


In the bird cage with the birds!

Next, we headed to the Lorey enclosure. This enclosure housed many different species of birds but the one that was most interested in humans was the Lorey. When you entered the enclosure you could buy some "Lorey water" to donate to the upkeep and maintenance of the enclosure and you were more likely to get some interpersonal bird action. You even walked in the tree tops to be with the Loreys.


Upclose and personal with the Loreys


Feeding the Loreys


A walk in the treetops in the Lorey enclosure.


This is a Bar-Pouched Wreathed Hornbill.

When Jeremy got very up close and personal to take his pix he lunged toward the front of the cage and plunged his beak thru the small openings in the fencing, and bit Jeremy right in the hand. This bird definatly knew what his beak would fit through! His beak was probably about a foot long and near the yellow pouch, was about 5-6 inches wide. And the tip of the beak, very sharp! Like Father like son here Buffy! He was doing what you would likely be doing to catch the shot!


Another Hornbill, with a rather clumsy looking bill above his beak!

These birds are quite large, probably about the size of a medium dog. If the didn't eat just fruits and nuts, they could probably carry off a baby. They are strong!


Great Indian Hornbill


Common Hornbill eating papaya and seed mix.


Here, a Secretary Bird (sagittarius serpentarius).

When we left the hornbill section we went to the Birds of Prey enclosures. Here we saw a variety of BOP's. This bird reminded me of a road runner. It was rather large though, standing up to about my hip tall.


And a Steller's Sea Eagle (haliaeetus pelagicus) boasting world's largest eagle and on the edangered list. It's habitat is found near Russia, Korea and Japan. Check out the size of it's beak!


Then off to the flightless bird enclosures. Here, of course, an Ostrich (struthio camelus). This was a male who was amongst his herrem of females.


And with the ostriches, was a small family of Slender Tailed Meerkats (suricata suricatta).


Mmmmm, fresh fruit.

Detouring from Flightless Birds for a moment, we headed over to the Jungle Jewels where we got to see lots of flora and fauna, other fast small birds, like hummingbirds, etc... as well as some Cottontop Tamarins (saguinus oedipus). Here they are snacking of fresh fruit.


Some of the flora in that enclosure.


...and then back to flighless birds...This one is a Single-wattled Cassowary (casuarius unappendiculatus).


Then, off to Pelican Cove. Just hangin' out!


Jeremy on the boardwalk towards the end of our trip.

We're heading towards the African Grassland section. He was getting grouchy and we both were getting hungry. We totally missed the largest waterfall and aviary and Parrot Paradise. We also missed the Madnarin Ducks and a lot of the Southeast Asian Birds so Sherry and Bill, when you come, we'll have to go back!


East African Crowned Cranes (balearica regulorum)


...and a close up! I love this bird!


Not sure what kind of bird this is, but he belongs in the African Grasslands


You can easily spend a day at the Jurong Bird Park!

We ended by seeing the Flamingos at Flamingo Lake. We hadn't planned well in terms of timing and didn't allow ourselves enough time to see everything. Even though it's so hot here, within the park it was really nice, lots of covered areas, and lots of shade. If you're feeling really lazy you can take the monorail which is airconditioned, but we don't think you would get to see as much as we did on foot. They do birdshows a few times a day, The All Star Bird Show, which we saw, and Birds of Prey shows too. If you wanted to learn more about some of the specific birds there, they had 'chitchat' times at the specific enclosures and they recommended timing your walking tour (which is on your own with a map) with some of the feeding times for a more spectacular visit. You can get your pix taken with some of the birds, and they even do a simulated "refreshing" thunderstorm, which we also missed. You can easily spend a day at the Jurong Bird Park, if you have an interest in birds and photography. We definatly had a nice time there.

© December 6, 2008