Walgrode Bird Park
Walsrode Bird Park is one of the largest bird parks in the world and the largest in Europe. It is located near the city of Walsrode (Germany, Lower Saxony), between Hanover and Hamburg. The park area is 0.24 km2. There are about 4,500 birds belonging to 675 species from all over the world in the park; in addition, about three million ornamental flowering plants are grown in the park in spring. Thus, Walsrode is both a bird park and a botanical garden. Thanks to this, the park is visited by more than 300,000 people.
The history of the park begins in 1962, when businessman Fritz Geschke started breeding pheasants and waterfowl. In 1964, his son Wolf V. Brema continued his work. He has been creating a real park for several years, which was opened to the public in 1968. Since 2000, the park has been going through difficult times. There were fewer and fewer visitors, and there was not enough money for the maintenance and development of the park. Until the Belgian company Floralux intervened in the situation in 2009. And already in 2010, the Walsrode Bird Park officially received international status.
Today, the main attraction of the city of Walsrode is the Walsrode Bird Park, which is the largest bird park in the world in terms of area and the second largest in the world in terms of the number of bird species, second only to the park in Singapore. The park consists of a huge number of indoor and outdoor aviaries, and several open buildings that house birds. In addition, the visitor can observe the life of the park's pets in a natural environment, without any aviaries, in free flight. Visitors are particularly attracted by the demonstration of the flights of various birds – this is a whole show in which eagles and falcons, parrots, pelicans and Indian ducks demonstrate their flight. There is an opportunity for children to participate in the feeding and rearing of young birds.
A huge variety of birds attracts the attention of travelers and ornithologists from all over the world. In addition to pigeons, cranes, geese, parrots and pelicans, pink flamingos, eagles, jacco, seagulls, cuckoos, penguins, storks can be seen in the park. On the territory you can find delightful crowned cranes, amazing birds with a big nose in the form of a shoe, snow-white and colorful peacocks, Javanese whistling thrushes, falcons, Indian ducks, ostriches. Colorful parrots have found shelter here: hyacinth and blue-throated macaws, yellow-crested cockatoos, Cuban amazons, red-fronted amazons, black-cheeked fig parrots and many others. Cape teal, lutok, rock cockerel, capuchin, and gogol are no less pleasing to visitors of the park.
The park has many outdoor and indoor aviaries, as well as several open-air buildings that house birds in natural conditions. Recently, the park staff created the “Hummingbird House”, which instantly gained popularity among park visitors of all ages.
Every year, tourists come to see birds, admire the most beautiful plants, and stroll through the enchanting exotic places of the park. Bird shows have been specially created for visitors to Walsrode Bird Park, which are especially exciting for young viewers. Walsrode Bird Park harmoniously combines the amazing effects of a variety of sounds, bright colors, lush shrubs, unusual plants, unique trees, ponds, and pleasant smells.
