KL Bird Park

Who has been to the KL Bird Park? No? Me neither before last weekend! Yes, I've been living in the Klang valley for 15 years now and I only visited the renowned bird park recently. No worries, I plan to visit many more place of interest around time soon in the future.





KL Bird Park is located in the serene Lake Gardens area and it is only 10 minutes drive away from the city centre of Kuala Lumpur. It is the home to more than 3,000 birds of approximately 200 species of local and foreign birds.



Sprawling approximately 20.9 acres of verdant valley terrain, the park is divided into 4 zones; Zone 1 and 2 make up the free-flight zone; Zone 3 is the Hornbill Park and Zone 4 is where the birds are placed in separate cages and mini aviaries.





One of KL Bird Park's most extraordinary feature is that in Zone 1, 2 and 3, birds are let free in the aviary which closely resembles their natural habitat. With this free-flight concept, birds are able to breed naturally in this unique environment.



Reputed to be one of the largest in the world, this free-flight walk-in aviary features various bird species flying freely and living together in harmony and balance, creating a unique ecosystem of its own in this semi-natural environment.



One of the must visit attraction is the Waterfall Aviary, a picturesque set up of lush green trees and a 30-feet tall man-made waterfall, this mini aviary is also the sanctuary of Milky Storks, one of the vulnerable and highly protected bird species in Malaysia.



While the free-flying birds are great to see (and snap pictures), I can't help but feel sad for the rest of the birds who are caged in those aviaries. Wish they are let to roam free like the other birds. But I'm sure they have a pretty solid reason for keeping them in captivity that I don't know of. Perhaps they could be prey for the other birds or something. Yeah life is unfair like that.





KL Bird Park had also begun its breeding programmes since 2002. Various species of birds, both local and foreign, had successfully being bred in the park under the programme such as emus, various parrots, storks, pheasants, peacocks and fowls.



Some of the birds are really friendly and tame that you could literally feed them from your hands. I suppose they grew accustomed to all those visitors.





Why do I started to sound like a brochure? Well that's because I copied them exactly from their website! How lazy am I! But in all seriousness, KL Bird Park is a great place to visit and bring your family to. You get to see lots of birds, learn stuff about them. There's a little amphitheatre in the middle of the park where you can watch the scheduled bird show.





The facilities are good and adequate. You can stop by one of the stalls inside the park or the cafe next to the entrance although I must warn you the prices are rather steep. RM4.00 for a mineral water? Why don't they just sell nasi lemak for 15 ringgit or something? Oh wait, they do at the ridiculously expensive Hornbill Restaurant!





The park is open daily from 9:00 am to 6:00 pm in the admission fee for locals is RM25.00 (adult) and RM12.00 for kids 3 to 12 years old. This park is great for bird watchers or budding photographers (like me) because there's plenty of birds to watch and take pictures of. I wished the fees could be cheaper and the park itself not so commercialized (read expensive) but who am I kidding right? Still it's a beautiful and interesting place to visit, at least once in your life time.

Visit the official KL Bird Park website for more information.