The Birds of Timbavati Wildlife Park

Greetings friends and welcome to this week’s blog. This week I just wanted to take some time to appreciate the avian denizens of Timbavati Wildlife Park. In the past we have looked at Emu and crowned cranes we have also taken a look at our penguins and kookaburra. When I think about it though, there is a collection of birds in the park that entertain serious birders and casual birders alike.

When you enter the waterfalls area, you are greeted by our kingfishers the kookaburra. The Eurasian owl and tawny eagle are in close proximity as well. We also have the cutest peach faced lovebirds you will ever see. When you look at the ponds directly across from them you can find our mallard ducks, lesser flamingos and siberian red breasted geese as well.

A quick jaunt through some of our award winning rock work will bring you to our penguin encounter which is home to some park favorites the south African penguin. This warm weather pair of penguins love basking in the sun and swimming in their pool. It’s kind of funny to mention the works warm weather and penguin in the same sentence. The truth is that there are a lot of warm weather penguins we just tend to think of them as cold weather fowl.

Now when you enter our woodlands area we have more of our larger birds and raptors. The second largest bird in the in the world is the emu. Ostrich is one, emu is two. I have stood toe to toe with both and let me tell you that when you’re eye to eye with the largest raptors in the world you don’t notice the couple of inches worth of difference between the two. Those are some large birds and if you don’t have a treat, don’t plan on hanging out with them for very long. The crowned crane and the greater rhea aren’t small birds either. The Woodlands area has a lot to offer in the way of birds.

With all of that said, you’d think that we would have more than enough birds to keep the worm population in check, we do but we aren’t done yet! The Interaction Area at Timbavati Wildlife Park has more birds than you can shake a stick at as well.

Our nursery areas have many many different species of birds in them. From the impeyan pheasant to the turaco. We have a lot of birds in the nursery area. When you step around the side of Nursery 2 you come to our macaw encounter. This always makes me feel like a pirate because the birds in this area will absolutely talk to you when you walk up. There are lots of clicks and whistles to be heard here for sure but its the occasional “HELLO” that will stir you until you figure out that it’s the parrots.

The crowned jewel of the interaction area and one staple of the interaction area in general is the parakeet encounter. In this encounter, you walk right into the enclosure and feed the birds directly. They come and land on your hand and peck birdseed off of a stick that you can buy in the park. It is a hit with everyone that steps into it.

I wasn’t able to put every bird that we have into this week’s video but there’s more than enough feathery fun in our park to entertain you and your fine family when you fly through out entrance! Talk with you next week friends!