On Sunday 23rd September, my last weekend in Bali, Pak Sidhi Turker, one of the Vice Rektors of Undhira, took the 3 volunteers (Bu Kazuko, Bu Jan, and me) to the Bali Bird Park as a "thankyou" for our work on campus.
The park is located to the north of Batubulan, the town famous for dance performances, just a short drive from Kampus Dhyana Pura at Dalung.
The park is located to the north of Batubulan, the town famous for dance performances, just a short drive from Kampus Dhyana Pura at Dalung.
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| Pak Sidhi leads the way to the park |
The park covers about 2 hectares of landscape grounds displaying over 2000 tropical plants, including 50 varieties of palms.
At times, butterflies flutter between bushes. Many birds are housed in cages or large walk-through aviaries, but other bird havens are "free range" so that birds can fly in and out.
| A small corner of the grounds (from Bird park web site) |
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| Several large macaws like this are free to fly around the park and perch where they both delight and startle visitors. Beware, they may snatch caps. |
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| Just inside the main gate this colourful pair of Eclectus Parrots provided a welcome to visitors |
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| A splendid parrot (but I forgot its species) |
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| A small tree snake within the park |
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| The Crowned Crane |
High up on a stony ledge in the large walk-through aviary brightly coloured birds such as this watch the visitors.
During the day bird keepers provide opportunities for visitors to see some of the larger birds in flight. Here a handler shows off one of the mid sized eagles during the "raptor" display. They are impressive birds in flight.
The handler recovers 2 of the 3 brightly coloured macaws after their aerial displays of rolls and swoops above the park. They provided brilliant flashes of colours as they passed low over our heads then flew almost out of sight before returning to the park.
Jan McClelland, also from Adelaide, is serving as a volunteer teacher at Undhira. She was keen to show her family that she could get close to the raptors. In the picture above I think she is telling the bird to behave, as in the second picture both she and the bird seem much more settled and comfortable with each other.
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| One more of the spectacular parrots which freely fly about the park |
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| No matter how I approached these birds, they always repositioned themselves so that one had its back to me. |
The park was an interesting place to visit. There are birds from Bali, other parts of Indonesia, from Africa and even Australia. It's quite a novelty to be walking through the park and hear the call of the kookaburra ringing out. It has an active research program, and its conservation breeding program has a high success rate in the reporoduction of birds such as the Bird of Paradise and the Hornbill.
Paul in Bali
September 2012
Taman Burung / Bali Bird Park
Jalan Serma Cok Ngurah Gambir
Singapadu, Batubulan - Gianya - Bali
http://www.bali-bird-park.com/general-information.html
