The Houston Zoo’s Birds of the World chirps to life

The new Houston Zoo bird exhibit is alive with caw-caws, chirps and tweets, the culmination of years of planning and work.

State of the birds: The $13.5 million Birds of the World exhibit features three aviaries, showcasing birds from Africa and North and South America.

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• About 80% of the birds are new to the zoo, coming from other zoos and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, according to Lee Ehmke, president and CEO of the Houston Zoo.

Driving the news: The exhibit opens to the general public Friday, and zoo members got a preview this week.

The big picture: The 2-acre exhibit is the final animal addition to the zoo's $150 million-plus 2017 Keeping Our World Wild Centennial Capital Campaign , which also funded the South America's Pantanal and Galápagos Islands exhibits.

• The renovation also includes the avian conservation building, where incubation and diet preparations take place and where keepers get ready.
• The exhibit remains in the original bird exhibit location, where there was a series of cages and the flamingo pond . Now, the South American aviary encompasses the 1920 flamingo pond, paying homage to the zoo's history, per Ehmke.

What they're saying: "We used to have a bird collection, which was literally bird by bird. And now we have bird communities. We're trying to show different parts of the world and how different birds live together in habitats that are quite different, in each case, the wetlands, the savanna, the woodlands," Ehmke tells Axios.

• "It's a beautiful, calm, shady, pleasant way to experience the zoo."

Between the lines: The zoo focused on the three regions because of the ties to its conservation work, per Ric Urban, the zoo's curator of birds.

• Throughout the exhibit, Houston's role as a major flyway for migratory birds is underscored, informing viewers of the importance of turning off lights at night during migration seasons. There are also signs about native plants that attract birds and provide them shelter.

Here's a snapshot of the exhibit:

This exhibit, with easy-to-spot large, flashy birds, has a humongous nest and a watering hole. Photo: Shafaq Patel/Axios

The African Savanna aviary features striking grey-crowned cranes, vultures, hamerkops, and more. The exhibit also has "coming soon" signs for the African pygmy goose and the great blue turaco.

• Two East African crowned cranes, with little strawlike crowns, are the heroes of the exhibit where the Houston Zoo tells its story of its conservation work with the Rwanda Wildlife Conservation Association. Through a collaborative public behavior change and rescue and rehabilitation campaign, the population of the birds doubled in Rwanda from 200 to nearly 500, per Ben Jones, the zoo's vice president of conservation education.

The North American Woodlands area highlights a variety of American songbirds including blue grosbeaks and indigo buntings.

• Urban notes that the exhibit is unique for featuring rehabilitated birds rescued from the illegal wildlife trade as part of a U.S. Fish and Wildlife confiscation program. Those birds could not be released because of injuries or their habituation to people.

The South American Wetlands habitat is home to the famous Chilean flamingos and the roseate spoonbill, a native of the Gulf.

• The original flamingo pond now has a mesh over it, allowing the birds to fly free. Previously, without the mesh, the flamingos' wings were trimmed.

What's next: The café and special events center are the remaining projects of the centennial campaign.

• "There's another two-thirds of the zoo that need attention, and we'll be thinking about what's next. I mean, we're already starting to think about it, but we are going to take a breath, because it was a lot of fundraising, a lot of construction — very intensive period here at the zoo," Ehmke says.

If you go: Tickets for adults start at $24. The zoo is open daily from 9am to 5pm.

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