New arrivals fly in!

We’re thrilled to welcome a breeding pair of rare Asian songbirds to DZC’s collection.

Keepers collected a 17-year-old male and two-year-old female Sumatran laughingthrush from Bristol Zoo last month and the pair have settled into the newly rebuilt aviary by our Southern cassowary.

A very social species, who live in large flocks, they’re also known as cooperative breeders, as chicks will receive care from other group members, not just their parents.

And as their name suggests, they’re also very vocal with a laughing call sound.

Once distributed along the entire length of the mountainous forests of Sumatra, this beautiful bird has suffered a rapid recline in number in its native Indonesia and is now listed as endangered on the IUCN Red List.

Despite being nationally protected, they are becoming more and more fragmented, not only through habitat loss, but due to being illegally trapped as caged pets or stolen from forests to take part in singing contests.

Back in 2020 we received a gold award after we contributed more than €5,000 to save Asian songbirds from extinction following the EAZA ‘Silent Forest, Asian Songbird Crisis’ campaign.