Dating with Birds at the Jurong Bird Park

Yesterday, we had a marvelous date with birds. Since my husband's office is located at Jurong East area, he suggested us visit the Jurong Bird Park when we had the chance. Enough said, yesterday right after he finished his half-day alternate Saturday work, we went to Boon Lay, took bus 251 from there and headed to Jurong Bird Park.

All this while, I was always so skeptical about visiting animal parks, something like Jurong Bird Park per se. I always thought that I already knew everything about animal and had seen most of the animals in this world from TV or live observation at zoos when I was small. Thus, purposely paying tickets to see these animals at a park is just pointless.

I shared my plan about visiting this park to a friend over lunch few days ago and she said, "Hey, Jurong Bird Park is nice. It's really fun there. I came there many times. Since the park charged the bird feed at S$1 per cup until they charge it at S$ 3 per cup now." Oh well, she was indeed big time right about this. Both my husband and I had fun with the bird collection and the bird shows at the park yesterday. I must say the whole visit was really more than checking out birds at a huge park.

When we first set foot at the park's main gate (i..e just about to go to the ticket counter), we were stopped by a guy from Wildlife Tour & Travel offering us a package of entry ticket, panorail ride and bird feed at S$ 26/pax. The normal entry ticket for adult costs S$ 18/pax. Without thinking so much, we said yes to the offer.

First time we entered the park, on our right side, we were greeted by a place full of penguins called the Penguin Coast. I was just startled looking at how big the penguin display and how many penguins they keep there.

YK in front of the Penguin display.

The marvellous Penguin Coast.

Then we continued to find our way to Penguin Wonderland. We expected a place full of penguins running around where we can touch or at least see them in an open area but there was apparently nothing wonderful about the so called Penguin Wonderland. It was just a kid play ground with a penguin theme.

OTW to the Penguin Wonderland.

Mimicking the Penguin.

Looked like they just had a penguin party with lots of kids and their parents and we got to see some of the party left over at the Penguin Wonderland.

I found an eco-friendly penguin handicraft made from the egg carton holder. 

Cute, isn't it?

Since we came to the park already in the late of the afternoon, we kind of missed most of the shows of the day. We only managed to see the Birds n Buddies Show at the Pools Amphitheater at 3.00pm. We purposely chose a VVIP seat and really enjoyed watching all the various birds' aerial shows. Gosh, we didn't know that birds' show can be so amusing. One important note here is that most of the audience were really entertained by one parrot who can really speak and sings in English and Mandarin at the very end of the show.

 Philip 'The Host' and the Vulture.

 Pretty trained parrots at the show.

Donate any amount for the bird and get this 'Sassy' post card.

Right after this show, we were rushing to catch the last show at the park, the Kings of the Skies (Birds of the Prey Show) at the Fuji Hawk Walk at 4.00pm. On our way to get there, we spotted a real nice pond full of red flamingos. Look at those long legs!

Red flamingos parade in the pond.

The carnivore birds show was not bad! The eagles, hawks and falcons in actions were just awesome. Some of them really do look so handsome (and macho)!

The MC with the Three Vultures.

Honestly, their shows are not just for kids. They are really good shows for adult's consumption too. They are really entertaining and educative. We just found the ways they slipped lots of messages and gentle reminders to preserve other birds' habitats out there by keeping our environment well throughout the show are creative.

Before we rode the Panorail, the mini "MRT" that transports visitors to three different aviaries within the park, we made a stop at the World of Darkness. According to the park's brochure, Panorail is the world's only monorail that runs through an aviary. The World of Darkness displays so many kind of nocturnal birds in this world. Apparently, this bird house features a system of reverse lighting, converting day to night and vice versa.

Important note about the owls.

One kind of scary look owls inside the display.

Enough with analyzing the owls, we took the Panorail and headed to a place called the Lory Loft. It's a really large walk-in lorry flight aviary. We got to feed the bird with honey water mix and the lorries immediately flocked to us!

The Lory menu.

 It's fun to have the bird flock to you.

We love feeding the birds.

Before we ended our date with the birds yesterday, we made our last stop with the Panorail. We had a look at the African Waterfall Aviary. Seemingly, this place hosts the tallest man-made waterfall in the world.

The African Waterfall.

After we snapped some pictures with the waterfall, we quickly went back to the Panorail station and headed back to the main station since the last Panorail operates at 5.50pm. We really needed to go back to the main gate ASAP. Before we really left the park, we had a chance to see some more penguins. This time around, these endangered penguins are kept in an open area.

Important Notice. Please read. Save the Penguins.

The swimming African Penguins.

Last but not least, I forced my husband to pose with this hollow board before we really made an exit from the park.

The Zoo Keeper.

So, I guess that's the end of our long date with the birds on Saturday afternoon.

I am so going to bring my family to this place once they get the chance to visit Singapore in the near future.