Jurong Bird Park Singapore

Shoe billed stork
Another must see attraction in Singapore is the Jurong bird park. Even if you are not mad about birds, this is a "must see".I am not sure if Singapore Airlines still do their "Singapore Stopover", but when we were making use of Singapore Airlines, a ticket to Jurong Bird park was included in the package.
Jurong Bird Park

Marie and I love birds, so this was very high on our wish list. The is a massive bird park and is amazing to see. There is a monorail which runs around the park and one of the stations is inside on of the cages! Anything with feathers can be found in the Bird park. It can be reached by an MRT (train) ride followed by a short bus ride. The public transport is Singapore is really great and it is very easy to move around.

There are two shows which can be seen at Jurong Bird Park. The one is for the raptors and there are many free flying birds. Including vultures, eagles, harks and owls.  The other show is by far the most popular and this includes the parrots. These birds are amazing. There was one who counted in English and in Chinese! One of the parrots did  a song. Then there was a "basketball" match. Other beautiful birds, like Toucans.

The displays are also incredibly impressive. The biggest of the displays is for the African birds.

Man mad waterfall in the African enclosure
This is the cage which has the monorail stop inside the cage. There is also a 50 foot high waterfall in the cage which is claimed to be the highest man man waterfall in the world. There is an amazing collection of birds in this enclosure. It is massive and is pretty much an natural ecosystem. Some of the special birds in the African enclosure included Africa grey parrots, Great Blue Turaco, various bee eaters and many other African birds. Glossy staring and many of the other beautify staling were also in the enclosure.
Raptor show
Snowy Owl

The first time we went there was just after they opened a new enclosure of the Australian parrots. This is also a massive enclosure with many lorikeets and other Australian parrot species. There are about 40 different Australian parrots, and many of them were included in this enclosure. Of course the icon Palm Cockatoos and red tail black Cockatoos had their own special enclosures. Sulphur creased cockatoos played a leading role, along with the Amazon parrots in the bird show.
Parrot Show
Singing parrot
Hornbill

There is an "Birds of paradise" enclosure. These are the special birds which are mainly found in Papua New Guinea and must be the most spectacular and beautiful birds in the world. Amazing colours and some fascinating feathers.
Inside the Australian enclosure

Starling in the African enclosure
The South American enclosure has many tanagers and of course humming birds. These are also beautiful birds with the most amazing colours. The humming birds are just phenomenal the way they fly and often look like large insects. The number of times they flap their wings in unbelievable.

There is also an enclosure of the polar birds (from the Arctic and Antarctic). Displays included emperor penguins and many other penguins. Then, of course  puffins. Comical birds with big bills.

Feeding the Bee eaters
One of the highlights for me was to see a shoe billed stork. This is a very rear bird which can only be found in a very small area in Africa, which is very difficult to get to and not very safe. Amazing to be able to see the bird in Singapore!

Cannot get much closer to the birds
One day is not enough to see all the Jurong Bird Park has to offer. An amazing place to see and well including on you itinerary for Singapore. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Looking for Tigers in Ranthambore

Image
Spotted deer. All my photos The star of the Indian wildlife reserves must be Ranthambore. This is a massive area of some 392  square km and it is a great place to look for Tigers. This was my third trip to look for wild Tigers, so, hopefully, 3rd time lucky. My first attempt to see wild Tigers was in Chitwan National Park in Nepal and the second effort was Jim Corbett Reserve in India. Came close in both reserves, but just saw beautiful tiger tracks. Ranthambore is close to the town of Sawai Madhopur in Rajastan. Apart from the main attraction - the tigers - Ranthambore is also a famous heritage site with various ruins within the boundaries of the reserve. Local gathering wood outside the reserve Tiger painting at the train station My trip started with a hotel close to one of the railway stations in Delhi. All of my previous trips to India, I was doing consulting for companies in India, and I had only been accommodated in top of the range hotels, so this was my fi...
Read more

The Embassed Elephant

Image
Charging elephant - not my photo Yet another elephant story! Anyone would think I like elephants. Well, I do. They are amazing animals and I just have a few very interesting elephant stories to tell you. Just wait until I start on tigers! I love tigers. In fact, I pretty much love all animals and any travel option which includes looking for animals is right up my ally! Now, an elephant story from the dim and distant past! Many many years ago in a kingdom far far away, there was an elephant. No - back to the real story. Many years ago I was working on diseases of fish and we (I was working at Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute) had a meeting and we invited one of the world leaders in fish diseases from the UK to the meeting. This meeting was held close to Lydenburg (where many of the trout farms can be found). The director of Veterinary Services was also attending this meeting and as we were quite close to the Kruger National Park, we decided to treat our overseas guest to a visi...
Read more

Richard Bragg in the First World War - Part 2 - Trench trains

Image
Damaged railway line at Ypres In the first part on the history of my Grandfather in the First World War, I explained that I only had very limited information on his story during the Great war. To my surprise, when going into his military records, I discovered that he also took part in the South West African campaign from 1914 to 1915. This I discussed in Part 1 of this series. According to his records, he was discharged from the army after the successful completion, and defeat of the Germans in S.W.A. He was discharged on 31 August 1915. He was a train driver, so I presume he continued with his life as a train driver. I obtained some information from a family member that his brother, Joe Bragg (it was probably Joseph Bragg - as this was a family name at that stage), also came to South Africa with him as a train driver. I understand that he was killed in a train accident. There was a train crash in the Cape on 22 April 1911 in which 30 people were killed. Another fatal train crash i...
Read more