Meet the New Arrivals

We are excited to announce the new arrivals to our flock. Two Crested Seriemas have landed all the way from Zurich. The pair is native to parts of South America where they feed on snakes and other small animals.
The ferocious duo is a 3 year old male and a 2 year old female, as yet unnamed. Although we have previously kept a lone Seriema, the new birds will be the first that have entered into our breeding programme, with chicks hopefully arriving in 2016.
Head Keeper, Alistair Keen says: “We are very pleased to have the pair of Crested Seriemas join our flock at Birdland. We haven’t bred Seriemas before so it will be an exciting challenge and we are looking forward to hopefully having chicks hatch next year.”
He continues: “The two birds will be the loudest inhabitants in the park, with a shrill call during the breeding season that is similar to the sound of a yelping puppy. It can be heard from several kilometres away!”
The Crested Seriema tend to nest off the ground and their eggs are a pale white in colour. It is also one of the only birds to have eyelashes. Their most striking feature however is the crest, which is unique among South American birds. The crest is comprised of permanently raised slightly stiff feathers at the base of the bill which can reach 10 cm in length.
We have also collected a new Trumpeter Hornbill female who will join the male Hornbill here soon. Interestingly the little female’s mother was in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and was ‘Transfigured’ into a cup!
Visitors can see the new arrivals daily from 10am.

The Crested Seriema

Crested Seriema