Tropical Bird House
The bird house is one of Krefeld Zoo’s gems. Here, visitors can discover birds in five large aviaries representing real cross sections of the natural biotopes. When designing the building, it was important to show the animals surrounded by trees and bushes, as tree tops and branches are their natural habitat. Twigs are the ideal seating and resting places for them, and also provide nest material.
In brief
- Area: 560 sq m
- 5 aviaries
- Temperature 20–35°C
- Hot and humid rainforest climate with 80% humidity
- Panoramic views into the bird house
Benches invite visitors to pass the time, watch and, above all, listen in this building. A large number of different bird noises takes you into the world of the tropics and subtropics. The themes of the landscaped aviaries are ‘African river landscape’, ‘African savannah’, ‘Madagascar’, ‘South American rainforest’ and ‘Asian rainforest’.
In the ‘African river landscape’, the eye is quickly drawn to the loam wall at the back, which is covered with carmine bee-eater nesting holes. The bee-eaters have dug their nests in the soft loam by themselves. The wall is temperature-controlled, and is kept moist at regular intervals. Numerous breeding successes of this species are the reward for this innovative wall.
