ZooAtlanta going to the birds

By HOWARD POUSNER

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

The four giant pandas tend to command most of the media attention at Zoo Atlanta, particularly with the current Give So They Stay campaign to raise $500,000 toward extending their loan from China.

But it’s also shaping up to be a year of expanded focus for birds at the Grant Park attraction, with new facilities opening and a baby boom of sorts afoot. Five bird species have become parents so far this month, producing two kori bustard chicks, seven Chilean flamingos, two Gambel’s quail, one Palawan peacock pheasant and 13 budgies.

An Avian Propagation Center, not open to the public but core to the zoo’s conservation mission, opened in July. In April, the zoo opened Boundless Budgies: A Parakeet Adventure, a walk-through, 2,200-square-foot aviary where 500 parakeets freely fly and interact with visitors. And a 5,000-square-foot aviary, under construction and planned for a September opening, will house African ground hornbills, lappet-faced vultures and two other species.

Amid the construction and opening of new facilities, the late summer avian baby boom has brought some excitement and satisfaction to the zoo that has nothing to do with bamboo-chewing black-and-white bears.

“It’s been such a whirlwind with all of the chicks, I think the celebrating will happen when we settle a bit and catch our breath,” says Sunny Nelson, the zoo’s lead bird keeper.

The kori bustards hatched just days after zoo staff traveled to the National Zoo in Washington D.C. to retrieve the eggs, as recommended by the Kori Bustard Species Survival Plan. The chicks will eventually be introduced to a Zoo Atlanta resident adult pair for rearing, and will remain at the zoo for approximately a year.

The seven Chilean flamingo chicks, from seven separate sets of parents, add to the zoo’s national reputation for successful reproduction of this species. The chicks already are on public view.

The parents of the Gambel’s quail chicks are themselves recent arrivals at the zoo. They’re primarily a ground-dwelling species found in the southwest and parts of Mexico. Their two chicks will eventually be used in zoo educational programs.

Like the quail, the Palawan peacock pheasant parents are also newcomers. Native to Palawan Island in the southern Philippines, the species is considered vulnerable in the wild. The chick is already on public exhibit, too, though hard to spot underfoot of mom.

Also the zoo’s bird watch, a wreathed hornbill chick that hatched in early May, fledged on Saturday. Following breeding, a male uses mud to completely enclose the female in a tree cavity, leaving only a tiny hole through which he feeds his mate and offspring. Zoo staff monitored the chick and its mother with an infrared camera located inside the nest box.

The recent opening of the Avian Propagation Center promises more tweeting at the zoo — of the avian type, not the social networking kind — in the future.

Temporary home to the kori bustard chicks, the center includes 16 indoor-outdoor breeding units, mainly designed for propagating smaller birds. Each unit has private space and a small outdoor area for sun.

“Breeding birds under these controlled conditions means far greater likelihood of success, especially for chicks right after they have left the nest and are very vulnerable,” says Zoo Atlanta curator of birds James Ballance.

While the center, with ample skylights and windows for natural light and energy savings, is mainly intended for breeding, it also has facilities for raising chicks and holding surplus birds. It is wired for full computer access and boasts video cameras to monitor birds remotely.

“Relatively few zoos in the U.S. have made this degree of commitment to their bird collections,” Ballance says of the new center.