Cypress Aviary

Our Cypress Aviary is home to about 100 birds that are native to South Carolina's swamps.  All of our animals are non-releaseable, and many of the egrets and ibis came from rehab centers or other zoos.

In 2012, our white ibis started breeding and had six babies.  The adults are mostly white, and this juvenile has brown wings.  The exhibit is tidal, and many wild species of turtles, frogs, and fish come in to visit.

The largest population in the aviary is the black-crowned night-heron.  The adults are a striking black and grey with red eyes, and the juveniles have brown speckles with yellow eyes.  For the last four years, our herons have been very successful nesters.  While we are happy to have a self-sustaining population, we have decided to share our good fortune with other zoos. 

Night herons look the same whether they are male or female, so first we needed to do some gender testing.

http://youtu.be/44RQ2BHqmMM

We collect a drop of blood and mail it to a lab.  They send us the results in about a week.  We identify each birds using a band on their leg.

We began our testing on three babies that fell from their nest too early.  They were raised by zookeepers until they were old enough to be reintroduced to the adult herons.

Zoo staff have tested 28 birds over the last month, so we have this down to a science!   Last week, we drove the first group to another zoo.