Tracy Aviary describes itself as an oasis in the city of Salt Lake City, Utah. I totally agree with them. Not only does it have some fantastic birds, but it is a nice stroll on a spring or summer’s day. Their landscaping (flower, plant design) is wonderful.

An “aviary” is a place that displays lots of birds. So Tracy Aviary is a zoo that has just birds.

I entered through the Tracy Aviary gift shop, and I made a right. There is a wooden boardwalk (bridge with a pond underneath), which had some water birds both big and small. The pond is called “Pelican Pond”, any guesses what kind of birds I saw? I imagine Tracy Aviary gets a number of local wild birds coming to Pelican Pond, like the mallard in the second photo. There are also non-local ducks in Pelican Pond.

Pelicans are large birds, but like swans seem so graceful in the water. In the wild they often flock together. Sometimes when I see a flock of them I think it’s a flock of snow geese. Pelicans also show up in places I don’t expect. Like some pelicans nest in Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming!!

At the end of Pelican Pond, I come to the cage of a wonderful bird: an Andean Condor named Andy N. Condor. He was one of the main reasons I wanted to come to Tracy Aviary.

A few years before I started the Zoo Folk blog, I came across a news article on Andy N. Condor’s birthday. He was born just a month earlier than I was!! Andy will be 64 this year!! This makes him one of the oldest birds in a zoo, maybe the oldest!

Not only is Andy my age but Andean condors are one of my favorite birds. I have liked them since I was a kid. They are the largest raptor (vultures, hawks, eagles, and falcons) in the world with a wingspan of up to 10 feet 10 inch. That is almost 11 feet!!!! They are also heavy for a bird, up to 33 pounds. They sore and look for carrion in the Andean mountains of South America. I say good bye to Andy and continue my stroll, though I could sit and watch Andy for much longer.

Next on my stroll I find the Southern Ground Hornbill. If you saw the hornbills on my trip to the St. Louis Zoo then you can see these ground hornbills look a lot different. The ground hornbill can fly, but mostly doesn’t. It spends most its time on the ground looking for insects and small reptiles.

I have seen ground hornbills at other zoos and they are often curious. Did it come over and check you out?

Next are some wading birds, and a kookaburra. The kookaburra was being noisy when I saw it.

I take a turn because I am excited to see a bird I’ve never seen before but have read a lot about: the Kea.

This parrot is from New Zealand and is really smart. They figure out things, uses homemade tools, and are sometimes mischievous. This kea came over and hung out with me for awhile.

Do you think he likes me? His name is Newton.

Now I head over to the cranes. One of the cranes is the sandhill crane that I’ve seen often in the wild, especially when I lived in Alaska. I have also seen them in Florida. Fairbanks Alaska to Orlando Florida! Check it out on a globe or map, that’s a long way to fly!!

They also have an African crowned crane, which lives a long ways from Alaska!! In with the crowned crane are some roseate spoonbills. I think the name spoonbill is a good name. Look at the end of their bill, it definitely looks like a spoon. There is also a white-faced whistling duck (upper right hand corner of last photo). This is an interesting duck because it lives in South America and Africa. It is thought that it may have been brought from one continent to another, but no one’s sure when or how. And yes, they whistle, I haven’t heard them quack.

When I first saw the white geese in with the flamingos, I thought they were snow geese, which I often see in Missouri. However they are Ross’s geese. The white birds hiding their heads are Coscoroba swans. In with these waterfowl are Chilean flamingos.

When I was a kid, I heard a joke about flamingos.

Do you know why a flamingo stands on one leg?……If it lifted both legs it would fall down!!

I now go to a series of outdoor cages attached to a building. I would have liked to get a better photo of the yellow-rumped caciques they look very colorful. You have to look carefully to see the elegant crested tinamou in the last photo .

Tracy Aviary had it’s king vulture next to the macaws. At first that seemed strange to me, but both are from South America and both are quite colorful. Also, both can be quite curious.

In with the king vulture is a Collie’s Jay. It shows how vultures don’t think of live birds as food.

I now head into the South American Pavilion. There were more birds but I only got decent photos of these three birds. I think the green aracri looks like a kind of toucan. I found it amusing that the ground dove was in the tree.

Once outside I head to the owls. They have five species but I didn’t get a good photo of the barn owl, which is actually one of my favorite owls. I also didn’t get a good photo of the screech owl. As you can see in the photos great horned owls come in a variety of color shades.

Owls are interesting because many are very well adapted for hunting at night. Their eyesight is famous, but did you know they can’t move their eyes?! That is why they turn their whole head when they look around.

I’ll now head over to the Kennecott Wetland Experience, which has some birds I had never seen before.

I have seen scarlet ibis before, but never the white-faced ibis, which I think should be called the purple ibis. I saw several types of terns when living in Alaska but never a Caspian tern. Some terns, like the Arctic tern, have some of the longest migrations. Arctic terns nest in the Arctic but fly to the waters near Antarctica during the winter!!

After I leave the wetlands, I go to the turkey vulture and red-tailed hawk mews. A cage that keeps raptors is called a “mew”, I don’t know why. Wild turkey vultures have a wide range in both North America and South America. In the wild turkey vultures are social, so I am glad they aren’t in their mews alone.

I could write a lot about turkey vultures, but I will try to write different things at different zoos that have turkey vultures. Yes, I like turkey vultures. The red-tailed hawk also has a wide range in North America. In fact, both turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks have been seen in every state, except Hawaii! That means they probably have the greatest ranges of any raptors in the United States. So many people have seen them, however, both birds are cautious of people, so this is an opportunity to see them both up close. Have you seen a red-tailed hawk or turkey vulture in the wild?

I say good bye to the turkey vultures and red-tailed hawks and head to the Treasures of the Rainforest. This mostly has birds inside but outside are brilliantly colored scarlet ibis. Also another Ross goose and ducks, as well as a “pheasant pigeon”. I thought a name like “pheasant pigeon” was strange. The people who named them couldn’t make up their mind whether it was a pigeon or a pheasant. I think it looks more like a pheasant, what do you think?

Inside there were some colorful birds like the troupial, Nicobar pigeon, hooded pita, and the Raggiana bird-of-paradise. The coloration of the troupial reminds me of the Baltimore orioles we get at our bird-feeder in Missouri. When I was a kid, I thought the bird-of-paradise was one of the most beautiful birds I’d seen. When the males are really looking good for the females, they are even more vibrant than the photo shows. I use to draw the greater bird-of-paradise but never got the feathers as good as the real thing. Tracy Aviary is only the second zoo I’ve visited that has a bird-of-paradise. The last bird is the Guam kingfisher. The Guam kingfisher is highly endangered and several zoos have breeding programs for them. Go Tracy Aviary lets get more Guam kingfishers!!

I start to head back to the entrance, but decide I want to stop by and say good-bye to Newton and then Andy. As I head to Expedition Kea, I realize I missed an area: Eagle Ridge. I take a photo of a golden eagle but couldn’t get a good photo of the bald eagle. I lived in Alaska for many years on the island of Kodiak, and saw hundreds of bald eagles every year. So I really like seeing golden eagles.

After the eagles, I go say goodbye to Newton and then Andy.

I have really enjoyed Tracy Aviary, I hope you’ve enjoyed the stroll as well. Tracy Aviary has lots of interesting and not often seen birds.

So to all you Zoo Folk out there, this is a Zoo Guy hoping you soon get a chance to visit a zoo, maybe the Tracy Aviary in Salt Lake City Utah. If you do get to Tracy Aviary, please tell Newton and Andy Ivan the Zoo Guy says “Hi!”