The Yes Zone

Saturday morning dawned and the sun rose at around 6:30 am, giving the clouds a pink-orange lining. I went and had a breakfast (mostly papaya) at one of the food stalls and then set off for Jurong Bird Park. Ignoring all advice to take a taxi, I took the subway there. The names of the stations gave away some of the history of Singapore. Names like “Novena”, “Commonwealth”, “Dover”, “Buona Vista” vied for dominance along with “Plasir Ris”, “Kranji”, “Sembawang” and “Boon Lay”.

I got to the end where the park is located and it promptly started raining. In one way it was good - the absence of the sun made the humidity a little bearable, while the rain made it impossible to walk, so I ended up taking a taxi from the station to the park which was about 2 Km away.

Just outside the main entrance there was a talking bird exhibit, along with a bunch of realistic looking bird cutouts.

In addition to selling tickets, they were also renting out wheelbarrows and strollers you could put your kids in and pull along.

Right inside the park, there was an African wetlands exhibit, with one of the residents (a shoebill) being extremely interested in the ground dwelling bipeds taking pictures. That bird would keep turning round to face a camera brandished by a tourist and stare it down.

The park is not very large, (about 8 square miles) and it has a monorail that goes around the park, stopping at two stations along the way. At this point, I was already drenched in sweat, so the decision was an easy one. The first stop was at the Lory Loft, named after the main inhabitants, the Lories (Lorikeets - a type of parrot). The nice thing about this loft is that it’s a free flight enclosure, with a lot of Lories, who are native to Australia. The first thing that struck me as I walked in was the noise. Those parrot wannabes are loud. And pushy.

You can buy S$2 cups of nectar to feed the birds, and they have become so accustomed to those feedings that the minute someone approaches the railing, they flock, demanding to be fed. I had a red lori scream at me while I fumbled with my camera:

Next to it was a Hornbill and Toucan exhibit. I’d never seen a hornbill before and waited around for the show and tell.

I had a lot to learn. Hornbills are one of the few birds with eyelashes; they need them to keep the moisture out of their eyes in a tropical forest.

And they take their parenting seriously. The female seals herself into the nest, which is a hole in a tree, leaving a tiny sliver open for the male to push food through. The food, usually berries and fruit (and sometimes a small rodent) is picked carefully by the male, since the female is supposedly a picky eater.

Yes, that is a live, full grown tree inside the “cage” (if it can be called that). I estimated the size to be around 10′ wide x 20′ deep x 20′ tall. Some of the birds are housed in such “cages”.

After walking around a bit, I hopped back on the “train” to go see the waterfall aviary.

And while staring at the waterfall, I discovered that they take their parks seriously too.

Obviously, the 90+ degree humidity is not enough and they have to spray yet more water in the air. (That was a snark from a sweaty tourist, gentle reader. In a real tropical forest, the sunlight does not reach the ground, and mist is continually formed and the plants have evolved to needing it).

Also, the birds there obviously can read.