With its three-story-high ceilings, greenhouse-like glass walls, and flock of bright-pink flamingos, the Wetlands habitat is perhaps the most memorable room in the National Aviary.
Now, it’s a bit nicer – and a lot safer for birds both inside and outside its confines, say officials at the North Side-based Aviary.
The five-month, $3 million renovation of the walk-through habitat was unveiled Monday. It’s got a newly resurfaced concrete deck and, below the railing that overlooks the pond, a new pebbled beach for the birds to rest on or toddle across.
The existing Wetlands flock of some 130 birds from around the world has even been joined by members of five species new to the Aviary, including pink-headed fruit-doves, scarlet-faced liocichlas, black-necked stilts, puna teal, and a pair of critically endangered blue-billed curassows native to South America.
But the most important improvement might be the least obvious. All 1,200 panes in those towering glass walls – some 20,000 square feet of window – have been replace by a new, bird-friendly glass by Pittsburgh-based Vitro Architectural Glass.
“Window strikes” are a big problem for birds around the world, who tend to fly into obstacles they can’t see, sometimes at the cost of their lives. So the new panes are acid-etched with a design suggesting undulating reeds.
“It’ll both help the birds in the habitat as well as the birds that live in the surrounding area,” said Jessica McAtee, the Aviary’s curator of animal husbandry and wellness, speaking after Monday’s ribbon-cutting.
Window-strikes kill "several hundred million birds each year," according to the Audubon Society.
The new glass will also warm the habitat by maximizing UV and natural light in the space.
This is the first major renovation for the Wetlands, which was built in 1969, making it second-oldest habitat in the 70-year-old Aviary. Also new to the habitat is a 20-foot-tall custom-made sculptural tree with perches for birds and, below, benches for flightless bipedal visitors.
Besides those American flamingos, Wetland inhabitants include brown pelicans, Bali mynas, boat-billed herons, and red-billed hornbills.
