25 June 2010
A day ago, my family went to the Singapore Bird Park. Unlike any other visits, we decided to explore different parts of the park. I only remembered admiring the kingfisher exibits once, and we never did explore the Toucan and Hornbill collection; the largest collection of Toucan and Hornbill species in South East Asia. But as we were now more interested in Kingfishers, we decided to spend the day at that exhibit. So immediately after the penguin exhibit, we began our trail of the Kingfishers. The first thing I saw in common of all the Kingfishers, were their colours. The different species all had their own unique colours, but I managed to spot two similiar colours among all the Kingfishers, blue and white. Their long, stout, bright orange beaks were also very distinctive. White throated Kingfisher,(top left) Bluebreasted Kingfisher,(top right) Collared Kingfisher(bottom middle)
After snapping photo's, our trail led us towards the 18 species of Hornbills and Toucans. The cages which these birds were kept in, looked pretty similiar to the ones of birds of prey. The only difference was that former cages were filled with greenery and thick branches. These enable the birds to perch on without fear of the branch snapping under their weight. I like the Hornbill and Toucans distinct beak. Some of their beaks were in different shades of orange while others were covered in multiple colours.
Taco Toucan
Soon, our journey led us to the Lorry Loft. This was my favourite part of the Bird Park. Whenever mummy bought the food mixture for us to feed the Lorries, I would be the first one to volunteer. Usually, 
the birds would feed either perching on the rails or on my arm. But today, it was different. If you know about pirates, you would notice that most of them have a bird companion on their shoulders. Well, should a pirate see me, he would probably be envious. Instead of only one perched on my shoulders, I proudly carried two and with two others on my arm. One even clinged onto my shirt! I was literally covered in Lorries! After a while, I started to itch, as their sharp claws were dug into my skin. I decided to put the bowl of food mixture on to the floor. Like magic, immediately the birds rushed for the food, and started squabbling over it! When I thought enough was enough, I took back the bowl and descended down a flight of steps with the rest of my family. Unfortunately, my actions were spied on by beady little eyes. The lorries looked around me, trying to find their stolen bowl of food. I had a pretty hard time trying to hide it from them! After disposing of it, we continued our walk. We also saw other birds, like hawks, and herons, soaring high above the aviary. I wondered if they were from the Bird Park. After exploring the rest of our favourites, we headed for our next destination, the Jurong East Libary. 