Exotic Birds at the Carolina Raptor Center

[canyonwalker]

On the last day of our West Virginia & North Carolina trip last month we visited the Carolina Raptor Center in Huntsville, NC. It's close to Charlotte and CLT airport so it was easy for us to add to the last day of our trip when the only other thing we were doing was making the 10+ hour journey of Planes, Trains, and Automobiles home.

Compared to other raptor centers we've visited several times, the Carolina Raptor Center is more zoo-ish. That was a bit of a minus as it felt the birds were pushed farther away from us as there wasn't as much interaction with knowledgeable staff members. On the plus side, the more zoo-like orientation, versus the other centers serving as a rehabilitation clinics for injured birds of prey, means the Carolina Raptor Center has a wider collection of birds than predominantly North American native species.

This video I put together shows 3 birds from other parts of the world:

Click to view

Link: watch video on YouTube

• The Andean Condor is native to the Andes Mountains on the western side of South America. It has the largest wingspan of all raptors, larger even than the California Condor. If the white feathered ruff around the bird's neck makes it look like you've seen it before, you likely have- in classic Looney Tunes cartoons. The bird in this video is not just flaring its wings for visitors but also vibrating its stomach. I'm not sure what the stomach motion is meant to do, whether that's to scare off predators (it's not at all scary to humans) or something else.
• The Grey Crowned Crane is native to East Africa. This bird is very showy, not just with that wild plume of feathers atop its head that looks like hair standing straight up, but also in the way it struts back and forth in its enclosure whenever new visitors arrive. The Grey Crowned Crane is an omnivore, eating grasses, seeds, and nuts along with insects and amphibians.
• The pair of Abyssinian Ground Hornbills are having fun poking at the remnants of the Sunday newspaper comics section. I'm not sure if that's a form of play for these birds or its part of their food gathering habit. In Central Africa, where they are native, they follow herds of grazing animals and predators, snapping up insects and small animals that dodge out of the way.