World Bird Sanctuary

My friends and I spent a relaxing Sunday at the World Bird Sanctuary, where we had a cute picnic, watched a bird show, and hiked a quarter of a mile. 

From what I've gleaned, this bird sanctuary is a private non-profit organization interested in the conservation and rehabilitation of threatened native raptors. Most of the captive birds on display were either disabled with zero chance of survival or bred in captivity for demonstrations.

The various raptors were kept either in full aviaries or in open enclosures. Those in open enclosures included handicapped birds who no longer could fly and raptors attached to mews jesses, such as the peregrine falcon above.

While I didn't manage to photograph the owls and hawks very well, I managed to capture pictures of two of the nine bald eagles living at the sanctuary. The majority of them had a visible wing deformity that severely decreased their odds of living in the wild, including the bald eagle flapping his/her wings in the picture on the right.  

Aside from birds of prey, other species ranging from Madagascar hissing cockroaches to Burmese pythons to homing pigeons to Turkish turkeys to parrots were on display. We saw a Military macaw, a Blue-and-gold macaw (during the bird show), and a few Thick-billed parrots.

The highlight of the visit was an educational live flight demonstration called Amazing Animal Encounters hosted by the Sanctuary. We watched a hawk, eagle, and barn owl fly and glide right above our heads while learning small facts about the respective native raptors. Then towards the end of the session, we were introduced to a Blue-and-gold macaw and a white-necked African raven, who took dollars and stuffed them in a donation box. :) How smart and cute!