False Advertisement
Some time ago, someone told me I should check out the hummingbird aviary at the San Diego Zoo. That person implied that the aviary there was had many more hummingbirds than at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Being a bit hummingbird deprived in the Chicago area, that was one of my objectives when we visited the zoo back in March. I wandered in...but where were the hummingbirds? There were lots of colorful birds, they were just a little too big. Maybe I was missing something; I went back later in the day.
I asked the docent in the aviary where the hummingbirds were, and she informed me it was still too cold for the hummingbirds.
Huh? But it wasn't too cold outside for native hummingbirds.
Turns out, the San Diego Zoo hummingbird aviary is too small for the native hummingbirds, as they are very territorial. They tried having native hummingbirds in the past, but the birds didn't survive as they all fought too much. In order to have at least 5 (!) in the aviary, they needed to have species from further south, and it was still too cold in San Diego at the time for them to survive.
Ironically, they released hummingbirds later that afternoon, but I had left by then. Unlike what someone implied, this is one of the areas that the little Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum certainly does better. Their aviary is larger and houses all native hummingbirds. The San Diego Zoo docent agreed with me on this point (and also agreed that the Taronga Zoo in Sydney was quite special!)
Oh well, the rest of our visit to the zoo was quite fun. We saw the baby panda, and I did see a hummingbird...a wild Anna's hummingbird singing away in the trees. :D While I was a little disappointed in the aviary, I knew I'd be seeing a plethora of hummingbirds in the wild in a month.
BTW, this is a Paradise Tanager (in the hummingbird aviary). Colorful, beautiful, but NOT a hummingbird. I sort of wonder if the other people in the aviary thought they were seeing hummingbirds...
False Advertisement
Some time ago, someone told me I should check out the hummingbird aviary at the San Diego Zoo. That person implied that the aviary there was had many more hummingbirds than at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum. Being a bit hummingbird deprived in the Chicago area, that was one of my objectives when we visited the zoo back in March. I wandered in...but where were the hummingbirds? There were lots of colorful birds, they were just a little too big. Maybe I was missing something; I went back later in the day.
I asked the docent in the aviary where the hummingbirds were, and she informed me it was still too cold for the hummingbirds.
Huh? But it wasn't too cold outside for native hummingbirds.
Turns out, the San Diego Zoo hummingbird aviary is too small for the native hummingbirds, as they are very territorial. They tried having native hummingbirds in the past, but the birds didn't survive as they all fought too much. In order to have at least 5 (!) in the aviary, they needed to have species from further south, and it was still too cold in San Diego at the time for them to survive.
Ironically, they released hummingbirds later that afternoon, but I had left by then. Unlike what someone implied, this is one of the areas that the little Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum certainly does better. Their aviary is larger and houses all native hummingbirds. The San Diego Zoo docent agreed with me on this point (and also agreed that the Taronga Zoo in Sydney was quite special!)
Oh well, the rest of our visit to the zoo was quite fun. We saw the baby panda, and I did see a hummingbird...a wild Anna's hummingbird singing away in the trees. :D While I was a little disappointed in the aviary, I knew I'd be seeing a plethora of hummingbirds in the wild in a month.
BTW, this is a Paradise Tanager (in the hummingbird aviary). Colorful, beautiful, but NOT a hummingbird. I sort of wonder if the other people in the aviary thought they were seeing hummingbirds...