Aviary takes flight at Miami's Metrozoo

MIAMI -- More than 10 years ago, Hurricane Andrew shredded Miami Metrozoo's aviary and killed many of its 300 exotic birds. Since then, the shattered exhibit has stood as a symbol of the storm's destruction and the ongoing struggles of one of the nation's top zoos.

Now the zoo has just opened a new $13.5 million aviary that's designed to withstand hurricane-force winds. Officials envision the Wings of Asia exhibit as the crown jewel that will help the zoo recapture some of its luster and boost attendance.

"No matter how great the zoo is, until that aviary is opened it will still be a scarred facility in people's minds," said zoo spokesman Ron Magill. "It's like a final bandage being taken off of a wound and bringing Metrozoo back to its glory days."

Metrozoo, rated among the nation's top 10 zoos in 2001 by Travel & Leisure magazine, needs the bird exhibit to rekindle visitor interest. After it opened in 1984 attendance grew to about 800,000 by the late 1980s. It plummeted to about 200,000 following Andrew but has increased in recent years with the addition of more children's exhibits. Still, attendance remains well below its pre-Andrew peak.

The new aviary, financed by federal and private money, is designed as a giant metal coiled canopy that can expand under heavy winds. While the new aviary's ground space is smaller than the original aviary, its airspace is greater. That's just as well for the birds. They're more interested in air, trees, and a playground to keep them out of trouble. That's important considering the bird ratio is five to 10 times as dense as a natural habitat.

Living arrangements

The aviary is more diverse than a tree canopy in the wild. The aviary, which opened May 3, is home to about 150 birds representing about 50 Asian species, including pheasants, fruit pigeons, woodpeckers and thrushes. As the vegetation grows, the aviary will be able to hold more than 300 birds.

"Choreography is one of the biggest challenges," Magill says. "You have to orchestrate how these birds will coexist."

One of the biggest challenges in rebuilding the aviary was finding the birds. Andrew killed 100 of the old aviary's inhabitants in August 1992. Workers recovered about 200 birds and lent them out to other zoos. Now, all but one of those have become inseparable from their new homes because they're used for mating. Only a lone Collared Mynah, a long-tailed bird about the size of a crow, has returned to his birthplace at Metrozoo.

In early March, zookeepers started placing ducks and less aggressive birds together to give them a four-day head start. Then another group of birds were set up in cages within the aviary for about a week before being allowed to fly free with the first group. As the bird relationships become more complex, keepers will transplant trees and other vegetation to block the views of competing birds so that they all feel they have their own space.

Link to dinosaurs

The aviary is divided into three habitat zones: wetlands, upland and canopy.

In one part of the wetlands, visitors can observe ducks diving from a glass-sided pond.

Many of the birds are shy, so bird watchers who have their heads buried in their guidebooks, might miss their passing.

Magill pointed to the tree canopy. "There's 12 birds in there if you just take a chance to look. It's like you're really going on an aviary safari."

Sure enough, visitors have to stare hard to find the appropriately named Leaf Bird perched in the branches of a Ligustrum tree. The bird's dark green body and yellow chest blend perfectly into the tree's wilting yellow-green leaves. The only thing that separates this tiny creature from the foliage is his bright blue head.

Other birds are so exotic they can't get enough of themselves. An awkward adolescent peacock is obsessed with his own reflection in the glass of the water tank, sometimes fighting and pecking at his image.

One of the aviary's most unique features is an exhibit that addresses the birds' link to dinosaurs. Mark Norell, chairman of paleontology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, was a key adviser for the exhibit.

A children's excavation site lets curious kids dig for ancient dinosaur bone replicas in a sand pile. A paleontology exhibit off to the side of the aviary helps visitors make the connection. By spinning a cylinder, visitors can see animated drawings of dinosaurs and birds walking with the same foot pattern. If they pull a metal rod next to a steel dinosaur skeleton they observe how the Monolophosaurus, an Asian predator dinosaur also known as "the single crested lizard," might have moved.

A small cinema transports visitors to an excavation site where paleontologists made telling bird-dinosaur links.