Tuesday, I spent the morning at the Columbus Zoo. The zoo is an institution in the area and as famous for it's celebrity spokesman, Jack Hanna, as for the animals. I have lived in Ohio since 1994 and I am embarrassed to say that in all those years, I have never visited the zoo.
I'll share pictures of the animals tomorrow along with my impressions of the zoo as a whole. However, I wanted to show the birds first. Not only do I love the colors and variety of the birds but, I was really impressed with how they were displayed.
The birds were grouped by geographic region with multiple species in each large aviary.
The birds were accustomed to people being nearby and were easy to photograph.
The high light was the aviary set aside exclusively for the lorikeets. You could feed them by hand with a sugar solution. They would climb onto your shoulders or arms and eat from your hands.
I know exactly what you are thinking. How cool is that? I think that I am going to gather up my friends and return next Talk Like a Pirate Day and get a picture with a keet on my shoulders. Polly want some sugar? Come on Polly, get over here, I don't have all day. Polly?
Just in case you need more inspiration, here is my favorite song about going to the zoo:
tim mcmurdo 