The Garden City Telegram
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Birds back home after some house cleaning
Published 11/2/2007 in News : Area coverage By Julian Ortiz
The Marie Osterbuhr Aviary now is sparkly clean and disinfected to make its birds feel more at home.
Lee Richardson Zoo Director Kathy Sexson said that all the birds and Goeldi's monkeys had to be removed from the aviary and placed temporarily in an off-exhibit building, a service area of the zoo that is used for the winter to hold birds, for the cleaning.
Zookeepers had to remove all the perches, wood chips, sand, water, plants and other substrates to sanitize the building's walls, floors and rock work as a preventive health measure. The pond in the aviary also was cleaned and received maintenance work. Sexson said the drains now are working and keepers were able to get the pond functioning again.
Sexson also said keepers clean the cages daily by scrubbing and removing feces. It's only once every couple of years they clean the cages this thoroughly. They use nets and live traps that close with a remote to capture the birds.
"It took about three weeks to clean the building and a week-and-a-half to get the animals back in," Sexson said.
While keepers were catching the birds, they checked the birds' beaks, feet, toenails and identification bands to see if they had injuries, and to make sure they were banded.
Sexson said keepers can identify the birds by looking at the color of the band or combination of color and where the band is placed. The sex of newly hatched birds also was identified during the process.
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The black-necked swan pair float on a shallow pond Thursday in the aviary at Lee Richardson Zoo. Zoo staff recently completed cleaning the aviary and building and moving many of the birds off-exhibit for the winter.
Migrating birds, such as song birds and egrets, also were caught and caged in the off-exhibit building for the winter until May, Sexson said. Swans from the duck pond were moved to the flight cage, because they can stay outside for the winter as long as they have a body of water. Sexson said swans can't stay in the duck pond because the deep, cold pond water would freeze their feet. The smaller pond is warmer for the swan's feet.
"We drain the pond occasionally in the flight cage. The flight cage naturally cleans itself," she said.
The flight cage will remain open during winter. Some of the birds that can be seen in the cage are Ruddy ducks, Mandarin ducks and bar-headed geese.
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