Experience The Wonder of Bird Migration Indoors

The next you happen to be in Washington DC, you will want to visit the National Zoo because they just reopened the Bird House. The Bird House is a fantastic facility which presents three major world habitats and is big and so well managed that the diets of the captive birds actually support the food habitats of bird species which migrate in the wild. These are some excerpts from the article in the “Smithsonian Magazine”:

“In the old bird house, the animals were a more international mix. But while the experience is now focused on birds of the Americas, it’s not likely you’ve seen them all before. These species surround us in forests, coasts and cities, but so many of them go undetected.

“This is this hidden component of North America’s biodiversity that to many people, they never lay their eyes on,” says Scott Sillett, a research biologist and head of the NZCBI’s Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center. “There’s literally hundreds of species that fly overhead twice a year. It’s like a Serengeti in the sky of migratory birds.”

‘Almost immediately, the birds adjusted to the curated environment. They began vocalizing, bathing and eating—telltale signs that they felt comfortable. And now, some of them are even giving the biggest signal that they’re thriving: performing courtship displays in advance of breeding. “Currently, we’re seeing a lot of dramatic breeding behaviors and dances,” says animal keeper Jen Ferraro.”

“Raising a migratory bird in captivity requires a very regulated diet. In the wild, these birds start packing on weight in spring and fall in preparation for the extreme exertion of their journeys. But in a zoo, the birds won’t be burning as much energy, since they’ll stay in one place. To compensate, keepers change the animals’ meal plans to match how they would look in the wild: For songbirds, they get more insects during the breeding season. Shorebirds get larger amounts of krill.”

Read the entire article here: Experience the Wonder of Migration at the National Zoo’s New Bird House | At the Smithsonian | Smithsonian Magazine