Tropical Birdland - on 5th April, 2023

On 4th and 5th April, we found ourselves hosting our son's two daughters, Amelia and Jessica. As a previously scheduled visit to Tropical Birdland in Desford (14 miles / 23 km from our home) had been cancelled at short notice due to one of the girls being ill, and the girls were keen to visit this place, we decided that the Wednesday would be the day to take them, even though the weather was forecast to be dull and showery. This was also to be Lindsay's first outdoor adventure of any significant duration since her knee operation.

We arrived soon after opening time to find the car park already well populated with visitors' vehicles.

It was heartening to see a Red-and-green Macaw high up in a tree beside the car park - clearly a free-flying bird. As the girls were eager to get in to the place, I didn't have time to wait for it to turn round, so only got a very colouful rear view! If my ID is correct, this is a species of forests and woodlands of northern and central South America.

Red-and-green Macaw (Ara chloropterus)

PLEASE NOTE:- I did not make any notes about the birds we saw while at Tropical Birdland, so have done my best to ID their species from my photographs. It is more than likely that I have made a mistake somewhere, and would be grateful for any corrections. I will say a few words about ID tools at the end of this blog post.

Not so heartening to see, before reaching the entrance kiosk, was an enclosure containing a pair of Snowy Owl. Knowing how this primarily Arctic species, in the wild, will cover enormous distances, seeing them confined in this way was a little upsetting.

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) (male)

Snowy Owl (Bubo scandiacus) (female)

Opposite this enclosure was another enclosure containing a pair of Great Grey Owls - another species of northern snows. However, these were both sleeping in unphotographable positions. These too, I felt decidedly uncomfortable about.

Having paid to get in and bought a tub of nuts for each of us, we entered the main area. The first bird that we encountered was an Orange-winged Amazon. This was clambering up the outside of a cage, and then entered the cage to join a congener. This is a bird from tropical South America and its habitat is forest and semi-open country.

Orange-winged Amazon (Amazona amazonica)

Also 'free-flying' nearby was a Red-shouldered Macaw. This is the smallest of the Macaws, and a native of South America.

Red-shouldered Macaw (Diopsittaca nobilis)

We next found ourselves back into an area with birds in enclosures.

The Orinoco Goose is found in every mainland South American country except Chile, French Guiana, Suriname, and Uruguay and has a 'near threatened' status.

Orinoco Goose (Neochen jubata)

The Chilean Flamingo is a species of southern and western South America and of 'near threatened' status. 

Chilean Flamingo (Phoenicopterus chilensis)

The Scarlet Ibis looked fabulous. I'm not sure what this one was trying to eat. Scarlet Ibis inhabit tropical South America and part of the Caribbean. Their status is one of 'least concern', although numbers are decreasing.

Scarlet Ibis (Eudocimus ruber)

The last species I photographed in this area was Red-breasted Goose. This attractive Eurasion species is currently classed as being of  'vulnerable' status.

Red-breasted Goose (Branta ruficollis)

Before reaching the cafe, shop, and exit, one arrives at a large open area with perches installed. Here, it is possible to get really close to many free-flying birds and even have them perch on one's hand, arm, shoulder, or head. Some of the birds seemed attracted to shiny things - like ear-rings(!) or (strangely) fur. The girls had a wonderful time here - and I was pretty impressed too! I found myself taking close-ups of some of the birds and was intrigued by the textures of the faces of some of them.

The Military Macaw is native to forests of Mexico and South America, and its status is 'vulnerable'.

Military Macaw (Ara militaris)

There were two Mealy Amazon in the area, and these tended to make a bit of a nuisance of themselves with visitors, with the member of staff overseeing the area having to rescue people from their attention from time to time. The species has been split into two - Northern Mealy Amazon (Amazona guatemalae) and Southern Mealy Amazon (Amazona farinosa) - and I am not sure which of these two these birds were.

Mealy Amazon sp. (Amazona sp.)

The Hyacinth Macaw is a splendid bird. It is native to central and eastern South America and its conservation status is 'vulnerable'.

Hyacinth Macaw (Anodorhynchus hyacinthinus)

I was surprised to see what appear to be scarlet bristles on the side of the face of a Scarlet Macaw. It is native to humid evergreen forests in Central and South America and its conservation status is of 'least concern'.

Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao)

We now move to the Australian continent and the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo, which is more common in the drier areas of Australia. Our granddaughter, Amelia, was most taken with this species, and spent quite some time taking this one for a walk, chatting to it as she did so. She named it 'Summer' and I think that she'd have taken it home given half the chance!

 

Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (Calyptorhynchus banksii)

We move over to New Guinea for the next species - Black-capped Lory. The conservation status of this small parrot is 'least concern'. In the area we were in, it seemed to stay on perches out of reach of the many humans around it.

Black-capped Lory (Lorius lory)

Back to the Americas again for the next two species.

The Black-headed Parrot (or Black-headed Caique in aviculture circles) inhabits the canopy, clearings, and edges of humid lowland tropical forests of northern South America and the status of this small parrot is one of 'least concern'.

Black-headed Parrot (Pionites melanocephalus)

The White-bellied Parrot (or Caique) is the only other species of this genus, and are found in an area mainly to the south-east of the Black-headed Parrot habitat. They also inhabit humid tropical forests.

White-bellied Parrot (Pionites leucogaster)

The girls had had a splendid time, but the rain was becoming more persistent and it was time to leave. We did, of course, exit through the gift shop, and the girls managed to find some inexpensive souvenirs.

Jessica and Amelia - Tropical Birdland

On the way out, I noticed that one of the Great Grey Owls had woken from its slumbers. The light was awful by now, however, and as the new lens on my new camera is not shower-proof, I did not spend any time trying to get a better shot than this one.
 

Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa)

ID Tools

As mentioned above, I did not take any notes about the birds during our visit, although there were infomative notes on the enclosures of those birds that were so confined. 

Relatively recently, I have been using the 'Obsidentify' app. on my phone for ID of many items in nature that I am not familiar with. This has, in general, been surprisingly good. However, when I came to use this app on the birds from this visit it failed miserably - unbelievably, the best it could come up with for that image of the Mealy Amazon, above, was that there was a 25% chance that it was a Common Sandpiper!!!!!! Possibly it was expecting to be ID'ing subjects from northern Europe, or even more local than that.

In a comment on the blog of my good friend, David Gascoigne, I noticed that someone was recommending the use of Google to identify where the shot of a monument was located. I tried this on some fairly obscure monuments and was amazed at how quickly it accurately identified these locations. I then tried it on some wildlife subjects and was extremely impressed.

If you use Google at all, but are not familiar with this facility, this is how it works:-

1. Go to the Google search page

2. Click on the image of a camera ('search by image') to the right of the window where you'd usually enter your search text.

3. It then comes up with options for loading an image.

4. Once you load an image I find that it is usually only a few seconds before you get your ID answer together with images and links to other instances of the item that you've searched on.

All the birds in my photos taken at Tropical Birdland were identified in this way, with the exception of the Red-tailed Black Cockatoo which I'd asked the attendant about because of Amelia's attraction to this bird. However, when I used Google, it confirmed this ID.

That brings me to the end of this blog post. I expect my next one, in about a week's time, to be back on track with UK wildlife. In the meantime, please take good care of yourselves and Nature.

 Thank you for dropping by - - - Richard