Taronga Zoo - Bird Show
As part of a trip to the Taronga Zoo, Charis and I attended the bird talk and show. It was one of the best experiences at the zoo that I've had, along with having an awesome view while watching the show. I highly advise attending the bird show if you're at the zoo for the day. It runs for about a half hour and is amusing and entertaining, with a little educational information.
It's really hard to have a bad day when this is the view you have
While talking about each of the birds, they are also doing things with them, and with some of them, that means spectator fly-overs as shown in these to clips.
The owl did around 4 or 5 flights over various angles of the crowd as the 2 staff wandered around the perimeter and had it fly between them.
On the next run by the owl, it's wing hit my head with enough force that it was obviously not just the air, but not enough to actually hurt. Charis felt the air from it. So silent though you couldn't even hear it when it was right on top of you.
The red-tailed black cockatoo flew over a few different lines also, but was all stage to back.
This flight was about 2 people to our right and was so close
Asides from these fly overs, they also have some birds of prey that they get to show off their manoeuvrability and catching some food in the air. The one time we had the camera rolling though, and the bird misses the catch, but still beats the keeper to the scrap on the ground.
Seriously he did around 4 attempts and this was the only miss and the only one we captured
And then there is the finale to the show, where they bring in the big bird by having it fly in from a tower above it's normal cage down into the arena. The Andean Condor is huge. If you want to have it fly right over your head, sit to the left side. For a better view of it coming in, sit to the right. We were in the middle for better range of the other fly overs.
Would be nice if they had wedge tailed eagle on the board too, but this is a decent indication of just how big the bird is
he hunted around in the ground log to collect any of the dropped food that might be there
This is unfortunately the best photo I got of his wingspan. It was surprisingly difficult to actually get a good shot of his wings
All videos were taken by Charis, using the slow motion function on her phone.
All photos were taken by myself, also using my phone.
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It's pretty cool the bird show, I have seen it a few times over the years thanks for sharing, cheers mate.
That is a very, very big birdie! But I was a bit confused was it the Condor or the Eagle?
Oh it's the Condor. I mentioned the Eagle as it's one of the largest birds most Aussies can think of
Thanks for clarifying! I showed my Dad (87 yrs) the photos his first comment was, "That'd make one hell of a drum stick". Clearly, I don't feed him enough LOL
lol, I bet it would! I'm not sure how it would taste either, but it'd be a massive meal either way
This show is wonderful. I'll have to take the kids to see it. Thank you for sharing this great post.
Certainly something any animal loving kids will enjoy.
Those Andean condors are massive! Watching it come down would have been pretty cool XD And yeh owls are silent and astonishingly strong for the size, how was your noggin after that? :O
The slowmo voices amused me no end! XD And of course you caught the one time the bird missed the food XD The handler looked like they were thinking about trying to catch it on the way down, probably a good thing they didn't try too hard XD
Head's fine. Was just a light clip from the wing on the downstroke, but not right at the end of it so it wasn't the whip like flick that can break things. Though I'm not sure if owls do that even since that would create noise...
I muted the slow-mo of the missed catch (at least that was my intention) because the noise was too much. I didn't bother with the others though since, amusing.
He certainly did attempt to catch it, but it was out of reach, but also likely that thing where you remember half way into the catch that you shouldn't do that.
Well yes, because riptearshred claws.
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