On April 1, we celebrate International Bird Day, which is intended to draw attention to the problems of preserving the bird world.
Bird Day is an environmental holiday, founded by Charles Almanzo Babcock, the director of the Oil City schools, in 1894, with which he wanted to draw the attention of schoolchildren to the need to protect birds. And already on March 19 (April 1, according to the new style), 1902, eleven European countries signed the International Convention for the Protection of Birds Useful in Agriculture. This holiday not only marks the anniversary of the convention, but also symbolizes the arrival of spring and the return of birds from wintering grounds. On this occasion, birdhouses, hollows and other "bird houses" are traditionally hung to meet birds returning to their nests.
Now, by celebrating Bird Day, we draw attention to the problem of preserving all species of birds, many of which are on the verge of extinction.
Mykolaiv Zoo keeps and breeds many species of birds from different continents – from red-crowned cranes to Australian black swans, from bar-headed geese from far Asia to the inhabitants of South America – macaws. Here you can see majestic Steller's sea eagles and exotic hornbills, African sacred ibis and white-naped cranes (all these species breed in Mykolaiv Zoo!) In the zoo you can find giants of the bird world – common ostriches and emus, colorful pheasants of various species and loud bright parrots.
But we will pay special attention to the birds of the fauna of Ukraine, many of which also successfully breed in Mykolaiv Zoo.
One of the first to greet visitors is a whole group of flamingos. The greater flamingo has recently become not only a rare migratory bird, but also a rare nesting bird in Ukraine. In the zoo's enclosures you can find such unique birds of Ukraine as the white-tailed eagle, the steppe eagle, the cinereous vulture, the Eurasian griffon vulture. The zoo also has the largest of the owls – the horned owls, and in the enclosures of the "Night World" you will find the barn owl, the little owl, the Eurasian scops owl. The ponds of the zoo are home to such birds of the fauna of Ukraine as the mute swans, the ruddy shelducks, the shelducks, the graylag geese. There is also a whole group of great white pelicans in the zoo, which successfully breed in Mykolaiv Zoo. You can also see mysterious ravens and an endangered species of birds – the bustard, the common crane and the gray heron, the common moorhen and the black stork and many other representatives of the beautiful world of birds.
An interesting quest was also dedicated to the International Bird Day, during which children, completing tasks, were able to get acquainted with many feathered inhabitants of the zoo. We invite you to view photos of our birds!
