Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Sylvan Heights Bird Park is a non-profit bird sanctuary in Halifax County near Scotland Neck.

Contact Information:

500 Sylvan Heights Park Way

Scotland Neck, NC 27874

Phone: (252) 826-3186

Directions:

From I-95 near Rocky Mount, take Exit 138 to get on US-64 East. Past Rocky Mount, take exit 470 for Atlantic Avenue and take NC-97 East for about 18.5 miles. Turn left on US-258 North and go about 11.5 miles to Scotland Neck. After passing through the town, turn right onto Lees Meadow Road and take the first right onto Sylvan Heights Park Way and follow the signs to the park entrance. GPS coordinates of the park are: 36.14566,-77.41434.

Exhibits:

Landing Zone:

The Landing Zone is an exhibit where visitors are allowed to feed some of the birds and get a hands-on experience. Most of the birds in here are budgerigar parakeets, a common pet bird. These birds are very tame and accustomed to humans. If you purchase some seeds sticks, they will land on your hand and eat the seeds, sometimes fighting over who gets the seed.

The other highlight of this exhibit is the American flamingos. These beautiful pink birds will eat food pellets right out of your hand. They don't seem to like dry food and will knock the pellets into the water or spit water into your hand before eating!

Here's a video from the Landing Zone exhibit

Eurasian Birds:

The demoiselle crane is a beautiful crane from central Eurasia. The crane makes an extremely difficult migration over the Himalayan Mountains each year, travelling between summer nesting grounds in the north and winter grounds on the Indian subcontinent.

The red-crested pochard is a diving duck from India and central Asia. The male has an unmistakable orange head of feathers that look like a slicked-back hairdo.

North American Birds:

Hawaiian Geese, also known as nene, are geese native to Hawaii. Hunting and invasive species almost drove the geese to extinction, but thanks to captive breeding and conservation efforts, the birds are making a comeback.

South American Birds:

The puna teal is a species of dabbling duck native to the Andes region of South America. The duck has a black-and-white head with a light blue bill.

Exotic Birds:

Eurasian Eagle-Owls are one of the few species of raptors at the park. It is one of the largest species of owls.

Indian Blue Peacocks are known for their spectacular display of covert feathers used to court a mate.

Kookaburras a gregarious and talkative birds. To encourage their singing, we played a recording of kookaburra calls on a phone and almost immediately, they began singing. Here's a video of their boisterous singing:

Videos:

Here's a video I made of our visit to Sylvan Heights Bird Park in 2015

Blog Entries:

17-Jan-2015: Sylvan Heights Bird Park

External Links:

Sylvan Heights Bird Park website: http://shwpark.com/