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| Blue Peafowl - Peacock (Pavo cristatus) |
In a previous entry I began writing about a visit to Paignton Zoo, located in the town next to mine, which I went on with my friend Miseria and my mother. It was a post about reptiles, fish, and amphibians, and was the first in a set of four; this is the second: 'Birds & Cats'. It will be mostly avians with a few felines at the end, because there aren't many cats at Paignton Zoo. Especially not when compared to the vast array of birds!
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| Chilean Flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) |
The first birds we came to were some long-legged, elegant pink flamingos, with some ducks and seagulls dotted here and there amongst them. It was actually possible to stand and watch them all from outside the zoo before entering and when exiting too.
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| Chilean Flamingos (Phoenicopterus chilensis) |
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| Mandarin Ducks (Aix galericulata) |
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| Chilean Flamingo (black under feathers on wings) |
In the top right photo (portrait orientation), the grey and white birds with black wing tips are gulls. They looked like the seagulls that live in the local area and, as the flamingo habitat was open-top, I'm unsure if the seagulls were kept by the zoo, or were simply local wildlife that had learnt to exploit the benefits of living near a regular, easy source of seafood!
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| Orange-Headed Thrush (Geokichla citrina) |
The next place we headed to was the Reptile Tropics, in which there were a few free-flying birds roaming about. The Tropics were quite busy at that time of day, and so the birds preferred to stay hidden out of sight for most of the time, but I did manage to take a few photos of the curious little orange-headed thrushes that were poking around here and there. Its size was comparable to that of a small blackbird, but it had the look of other members in the thrush family, to which it belongs. I could also hear them singing very loudly as they flitted from plant to plant, though apparently they're largely silent in the wild (especially in winter).
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| Crested Pigeon (Ocyphaps lophotes) |
After that came the Desert House birds. Some of those were much easier to see due to the lack of foliage on the desert plants and, in the case of this rather handsomely puffy Crested Pigeon, because they were falling asleep on their perches! A very endearing bird indeed.
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| A crested pigeon resting in a puffball on his perch. |
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| Princess Parrot (Polytelis alexandrae) |
However, not all of the birds in this section were so cooperative (at least not from a photographic point of view!) and the parrots / parakeets seemed to rather like settling themselves up in the rafters, facing the walls / windows / plants. They did fly back and forth frequently between various sites around the Desert though, which meant I was able to see them well with my eyes, even if not with my camera!
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| Elegant Crested Tinamou (Eudromia elegans) |
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| Elegant Crested Tinamou (Eudromia elegans) |
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| Lesser Adjutant Stork (Leptoptilos javanicus) |
Next, we encountered some very large, majestic, and wonderful birds: lesser adjutant storks. They used to have marabou storks in this aviary, but they've since been moved somewhere else. Apparently the zoo may also attempt to acquire some greater adjutant storks in the future as well, but they are the more difficult of the three to care for. (Marabous, along with greater and lesser adjutants are the three stork species in the same genus of leptoptilos).
Although their enclosure is large and along the main path leading from the zoo's entrance, not many people have ever been stopping to look at them in the times I've visited before. Those who have were often making comments about the birds' "ugliness" and then moved on to marvel at the free-roaming peacocks nearby.
However, I don't agree that they're ugly at all! I've always found this family of storks to be rather beautiful, and enjoy spending lots of time watching them. I love the way they look! The aforementioned "ugly" appearance is part of their charm for me, as is the way they move. During this visit, I observed two in particular: one that was by a nest and one standing on a log perch nearby.
The one by the nest would occasionally rearrange the twigs with its beak / feet and then look around. The one on the log was mostly standing still, but at one point it did started walking, then hopping, across the perch. When it got halfway through one of its log laps, it began flapping its wings and making low, rattling noises. I've read that marabous are usually quite silent birds unless they're engaging in courtship displays, but I'm not sure if that's what this particular stork was doing or not. There was one other stork, perched at the end of the log, which I could see clearly and it spend most of the time facing us. When I looked at the photos of this one - number 05, which is a number I like for ridiculous reason anyway - at home, I noticed how eerie and gorgeous lesser adjutant storks' eyes are!
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| Number 05 the Lesser Adjutant |
After that we did see one of the flashy peacocks that everyone was flocking to and he was magnificent too! He had parked himself on one of the picnic tables, allowing his tail feathers to trail elegantly across the seat.
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Blue Peafowl - Peacock
(Pavo cristatus)
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| European Herring Gull (Larus argentatus) |
There was also another (wild) seagull perched on a fence post near us. It posed for us for a little while, then hopped off and flew away!
After that we headed to the aviary section around the Primley and also the areas where some of the owls were. We found another gull there too, posted on the roof of one of the enclosures like a little squawking, grey and white guard!
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| Palawan Peacock-pheasant (Polyplectron napoleonis) |
We noticed the handsome fellow above strutting about his enclosure, painted in brilliant shades of black and blue! I can't remember now whether or not he had a female companion with him. However, as Palawan peacock-pheasants are, apparently, monogamous for life and Paignton Zoo is rather fond of breeding programmes, I suppose he must have had a lady friend in there with him somewhere. The females are, just as their namesakes, much less colourful though, which would have made her a lot more difficult to spot.
Speaking of difficult to spot...
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| The Lady Amherst's Pheasant (Chrysolophus amherstiae) |
Parts of this lovely male Lady Amherst's pheasant's plumage patterning almost blended in seamlessly with the fence behind him!
The flamboyant feathers of the birds below, however, ensured that they had no such problems standing out:
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| Blue-Throated Macaw (Ara glaucogularis) |
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| Yellow-Headed Amazon Parrot (Amazona oratrix) |
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| Chattering Lory (Lorius garrulus) |
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| Wrinkled Hornbill (Aceros corrugatus) |
Whilst parrot species above relied upon their plumage for vibrancy, the wrinkled hornbill has a beak that is equally as flashy. I think this particular bird was a male, as the females usually have black feathers on their auriculars (ear openings), neck-sides, cheeks, and chest, with a blue throat. I could be wrong though, because I think male wrinkled hornbills have more pronounced red areas on their bills (if anyone has any idea, let me know, please!).
There was a second who had a much redder beak, just as the one below was, so perhaps the first was just a juvenile? Either way, hornbills - this species and others - are really interesting to watch!
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| Wrinkled Hornbill (Aceros corrugatus) |
I have to say, this area of the aviaries was not as good as it could have been. Each enclosure was rather small and whilst there was some stimulation for the birds, there didn't seem to be nearly enough. However, I do know that a large area of the zoo - the Lemur Wood and the aviaries near it - were closed for renovation during this visit. That being the case, it's possible that they're planning to change the living arrangements for the birds completely once the improvements have been completed.
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| Grey Gull (Leucophaeus modestus) |
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| Socorro Doves (Zenaida graysoni) |
In one of the aviaries, featuring Socorro there was a little pond for the semi-aquatic birds. This included grey gulls, ringed teal ducks and a few other species. They all interacted happily, though they generally stayed in pairs.
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| Ringed Teal Duck (Callonetta leucophrys) |
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| Ringed Teal Duck (Callonetta leucophrys) |
The ducks would jump into the water, jump out again, then preen themselves, before tucking their bills behind them into their wings and resting for a while.
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| Ringed Teal Duck (Callonetta leucophrys) |
The bird to the left and right was also in the same aviary, but I haven't been able to identify it yet and, as I forgot to photograph most of the signs, I have no idea what it was (if anyone does know, feel free to enlighten me!).
In the same area, there were also a few wild wood pigeons cooing around. They looked quite lovely, so we took some photographs of them as well.
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| Common Wood Pigeon (Columba palumbus) |
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Blue Peafowl - Peacock
(Pavo cristatus) with a charity sculpture
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Blue Peafowl - Peacock
(Pavo cristatus)
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As we moved away from those particular aviaries, we saw some more free-roaming peafowl, including a leucistic peahen. One of the peacocks started making quite a racket in on the lawn around the empty picnic tables, before displaying his tail feathers. A nearby peahen then made a quick escape whilst he was busy showing off!
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Blue Peafowl - Peahen
(Pavo cristatus)
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Blue Peafowl - Peahen (leucistic)
(Pavo cristatus)
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Even further along, we saw a line of free-roaming guineafowl following each other in single file. They moved quickly, though rather inelegantly, but they were adorable!
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| Helmeted Guineafowl (Numida meleagris) |
However, not far away there were some very elegantly gorgeous crowned cranes:
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| Black Crowned Crane (Balearica pavonina) |
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| East African Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) |
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| East African Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) |
Paignton Zoo also has Sarus cranes, wattled cranes, and red-crowned cranes, but unfortunately we didn't see them during this visit.
Nearby the cranes, we saw some birds that I'd never heard of before: southern screamers. These unusual grey birds are native to southeastern Peru, northern Bolivia, Paraguay, southern Brazil, Uruguay and northern Argentina, and live for around 15 years in the wild.
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| Southern Screamer (Chauna torquata) |
Next we saw the Darwin's rheas and a lone female ostrich in a paddock with some zebras (and seagulls), though there may have been others that we couldn't see.
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| Darwin's Rheas (Rhea pennata) |
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| Ostrich (Struthio camelus) |
We also saw a beautiful oriental stork:
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| Oriental Stork (Ciconia boyciana) |
Also, we saw one of the birds I always love watching each time I visit the zoo: the Abyssinian ground hornbill. As with the lesser adjutant storks, his is another bird that other visitors seem to like to call "ugly", but I really don't understand this. I find this bird quite lovely, with its giraffe-like long eyelashes - and interesting too! When we saw the hornbill this time, it was holding a chick (food) in its mouth, but instead of tossing its head back to eat the chick, as this species usually would, the hornbill just stood there with it in its mouth for ages. I'm not really sure why that was, but perhaps it simply wasn't hungry at the time.
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| Abyssinian Ground Hornbill (Bucorvus abyssinicus) |
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| Manu the Kiwi in his house (Apteryx mantelli) |
Another interesting bird we got to see (via video screen) was the kiwi. This kiwi, Manu, is currently the UK's only one and he came from Germany in April of this year, in order to attempt to start another breeding program. The reason we saw him via a video screen is because kiwi birds are largely nocturnal and so he was asleep in his indoor house.
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| Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) |
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| Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) |
As we walked over to the owl aviaries, we noticed a little wild blackbird bobbing around in the fallen leaves. He appeared to have some feathers missing from his head area but, other than that, looked in good condition. So hopefully he was alright.
Before I mention the owls that were in the woodland aviaries, I want to add some pictures of the owls we saw near the parrots: a magellanic horned owl and then one other owl that I don't know the name of (though it might have been a pair of Madagascar long-eared owls; please tell me if you know!).
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| Magellanic Horned Owl (Bubo magellanicus) |
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| Unidentified owl species |
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| The same unidentified owl species |
The owls in the woodland aviaries were much easier to identify, particularly the great grey owl with its distinctive head shape and face markings. The great grey we saw was very alert to to any noises in the trees around it and we often got to witness it turning its large head - consisting of mostly feathers - in all directions. This gave it quite a curious look. Both types of owl stared directly at us, as though they were observing us too. Particularly when we hadn't been pointing the camera at them for a while. They're eyes have the very definite look of a predator, and it was a little unnerving at first, but just they're so beautiful!
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| Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) |
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| Great Grey Owl (Strix nebulosa) |
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| Ural Owl (Strix uralensis) |
The last aviary we went to was one for wetland birds that was not only filled with all kinds of wonderful species of birds, but also many varieties of plant species too. We only photographed a small snapshot of creatures here, but it was a really fantastic place.
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| African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) |
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| African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) |
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| African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus) |
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| Speckled Pigeon (Columba guinea) |
The speckled pigeon was very striking with its red eye mask, like some avian super hero/villain!
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| Madagascar Teal Duck (Anas bernieri) |
The Madagascar teal ducks weren't quite as showy, but they were very charming all the same. There was a little machine that allowed you to give the ducks food and they became very active and vocal during these times. However, it's actually the speckled pigeon that's eating a piece of that food in the photograph above!
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| Little Egret (Egretta garzetta) |
The little egrets had feathers that looked very much like fine fur at first glance. Standing on the twisting branches of their perches, they looked almost magical.
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| Common Blackbird (Turdus merula) |
Another little wild blackbird had also snuck into this aviary, but he seemed to fit in nicely with all the other, more exotic birds in the collection.
That was the last of the bird section of the entry, now we move onto the cats. This is considerably shorter and will only include the two big cat species they have, as I didn't see the other ones.
First we saw the Sumatran tiger, which we had to spend a while trying to spot, despite his bright orange against the green surroundings. The stripes really do help to break up his frame!
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| Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) |
The Sumatran tiger is a critically endangered and so Paignton Zoo's tigers are part of a breeding program trying preserve the species. Due to this, only the male tiger was in the public viewing area during our visit, as the female was pregnant. She has since given birth to three cubs!
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| Sumatran Tiger (Panthera tigris sumatrae) |
The other big cats we saw were the Asiatic lions, of which I believe there were two females and one male. Male Asiatic lions have smaller, lighter manes than African lions and both sexes are overall smaller in general. Also, they might look a little bit out of shape, due to the skin fold around their stomachs, but this is actually completely normal for this species of lion.
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| Asiatic Lion (Panthera leo persica) |
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| Asiatic Lioness (Panthera leo persica) |
And on that note, I'll leave it there for this entry; next time: Primates & Medium to Large Mammals. (No, I'm not really sure how I'm working out my categories either, but bear with me! Haha).
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☆Thank you for imagining another part of this paracosm☆