We've begun the process of organizing our photos and notes from our recent trip to Indianapolis, and while I expect to spread the stories from our trip out over the next several months, I thought it would be fun to share a few pictures of one of our experiences at the Indianapolis Zoo as a quick preview of the stories to come.
After spending a couple of hours at the zoo with a group of travel writers, our hosts asked us if we would be interested in feeding the birds at the aviary.
I'd never gone to a feeding experience at any zoo, so immediately said I'd love to feed the birds. Tim decided to accompany me, and the two of us ended up with our own personal guide through the zoo aviaries and the feeding experiences!
The zoo's five aviaries are home to about 700 exotic birds.
The bird exhibit, Flights of Fancy: A Brilliance of Birds, opened in May of 2012 in an area formerly occupied by a petting zoo.
Flights of Fancy includes three walk-through aviaries, which allow visitors a close-up and personal view of curious and personable birds like the colorful budgies and lorikeets with one of two feeding experiences available to the public at the Indianapolis Zoo.
The exhibit, designed especially for families with young children in mind, has family-friendly features like a nearby Nursing Mom's Nest for nursing mothers seeking a little privacy to feed their children and a line of comfy Adirondack chairs for parents seeking a little rest as their energetic children enjoy feeding the birds.
Tim and I are, after all, just big kids at heart, so we loved this experience and the chance to create a few images as the feeding birds stayed still long enough to pose for a picture!
Many of the birds come from warmer climates like Africa, South Africa and Australia, so they spend many of the colder months in climate-controlled areas at the zoo. This hot summer day, which boasted hot humid "air that you could wear" in the words of one of our hosts, was perfect for our feeding adventure.
The bird exhibit includes feeding stations in two of the aviaries where visitors can purchase feeding sticks with a small serving of food for the budgies or small cups of nectar for the lorikeets.
Our hosts reminded us to keep the food covered until we were ready to feed the birds, but Tim, big impatient kid that he is, didn't heed the warning and immediately attracted a swarm of budgie friends before I had my camera in place to start making photos! I still got a few great images, and he had some great images of me feeding the birds as well.
Thanks to the White River State Park that, along with Visit Indy and Downtown Indy, sponsored our visit to Indianapolis, Indiana by providing lodging, meals and help arranging visits to area attractions for our review, with no further compensation .We were free to express my own opinions about the stay and experiences, and the opinions expressed here are our own.
Text © Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved
Photos © Tim Marks and Dominique King 2015 All rights reserved
How fun! The Washington Park Zoo in Michigan City has an Australian Aviary where you can lure the birds to you with a feed stick. I'm sure it isn't as large as the one at the Indianapolis Zoo, but it was fun.
Posted by: Connie Reed | July 07, 2015 at 07:45 AM
This was fun...and I'm surprised Tim and I were the only ones on the trip who took them up on the offer to feed the birds! We loved getting up-close-and-personal with our little avian friends :)
Posted by: Dominique King | July 07, 2015 at 08:28 AM