We always like visiting bird parks, zoos, wildlife refuges wherever we travel. One of the best in this country is the huge Territory Wildlife Park which we visited in August 2022. On a recent trip to Singapore we decided to visit the recently opened Mandai Bird Paradise (used to be the Jurong Bird Park) part of the Singapore zoo complex that includes the Night Safari, River Safari and the Singapore Zoo proper.
Its website looked impressive and even though entry was quite expensive, about $A54, at the time of writing, it was possibly the best walk-in bird aviary/experience I have ever seen.
The park is divided into several geographic or theme-based zones: Crimson Wetlands, Songs of the Forest, Wings of Asia, Lory Loft, Australian Outback, Mysterious Papua, Penguin Cove, Heart of Africa and Winged Sanctuary. The last one is actually a series of large cages while the rest are housed in vast, aircraft hanger sized enclosures, all offering multiple viewing levels via boardwalks. Each themed section is, thankfully, interspersed with pavilions displaying useful avian information in an icy air-conditioned atmosphere.
What's good about this place? Well, for a photographer it allows you to see and photograph a huge range of exotic birdlife, most of which would be almost impossible to see in the wild - because they are so small, so rare, very secretive or inhabit such remote environments.
I also noticed that many of these birds seemed to be quite curious - they didn't really appear to be frightened of the people walking through their environment. If any of them were transferred from the old Jurong Bird Park, I'm quite sure that they'd be stunned by the huge new enclosures - or maybe they are just curious birds...
As you'd expect in Singapore, there's a good range of food outlets dotted around the large complex - ranging from an Indian banana leaf cafe, to Starbucks, to a Danish ice cream outlet. You are not going to get hungry while visiting this place. We ate in a posh restaurant overlooking the Crimson Wetlands with massive sized servings - not really what you want when schlepping through 34 degree humidity. Food was good and well presented but to top it off - because we'd spent more than SG$50 on lunch the waiter asked,"would we like the raspberry tart for dessert, at 50% off?". Typical Singapore!