Zoo Atlanta to open exotic-bird aviary

Building on the popularity of its just-opened parakeet exhibit, Zoo Atlanta plans to open an exotic-bird aviary in late summer. Behind the scenes, the Grant Park institution is also building a bird management center for breeding threatened and endangered birds.

The 5,000-square-foot aviary will be built across from the elephant exhibit and will house African ground hornbills, lappet-faced vultures, African pigeons and toucans.

“It will be a very active, colorful, noisy and entertaining aviary,” said zoo president and CEO Dennis Kelly.

The zoo is taking construction bids for the $150,000 facility, and expects work to begin soon. It will replace a smaller aviary that has housed only lappet-faced vultures.

While off limits to visitors, the $600,000 bird management building, under construction behind the panda exhibit with a mid-summer completion expected, will allow the zoo to take a bigger profile in bird conservation.

“We’ve not contributed to bird conservation the way we should, and this facility will allow us to do so,” Kelly said.

The zoo’s most significant conservation successes in recent years have been with giant pandas and western lowland gorillas in Atlanta and mountain gorillas in China.

Zoo Atlanta also has a tiger holding facility and an animal hospital late in design phases and has announced plans to build a reptile and amphibian house double the size of its current one. Its construction is not expected for two to three years.

The 2,200-square-foot parakeet aviary features 500 birds that visitors can interact with, including offering them feed sticks as they cling to a guest’s arm or shoulder.