The third largest of the vultures of the Americas, the King Vulture has one of the strongest beaks out of all the American vultures and is able to open carcasses that the others cannot. While some of its food may be dead fish or lizards, other times it feeds on sloths, monkeys, or cattle. This is a vulture of the tropical lowland forests of Central and South America. Like other vultures, the King Vulture requires variety in its habitat so that it combines open areas where carrion can be found, isolated nest sites such as rock outcrops, and undisturbed stands of large trees for roosting. Although not considered threatened at this time, there are few data on population trends and some concern that the King Vulture may be declining as a result of habitat destruction.

Lanner Falcons are strong, stocky birds with long wings and a relatively short tail, very similar to the North American Peregrine Falcon. Males and females of this species tend to look the same, but females are slightly larger. Lanner Falcons have been used in the sport of falconry for centuries, and are prized for their ability to capture other birds such as pigeons. Lanner Falcons are fast, agile flyers that use both a vertical stoop and a horizontal hunting style to pursue their prey. They can fly low over the ground at speeds of up to 90 miles per hour.

You may not think you’ve heard the rollicking call of the Laughing Kookaburra, but you almost certainly have. The Kookaburra’s loud “laugh” — that echoing koo-koo-koo-koo-KA-KA-KA! in the background of every jungle movie ever made — actually comes from a squat, unassuming bird who would never be found anywhere near a jungle. In fact, the traditional home of the wild Laughing Kookaburra is the wide-open eucalyptus forests of Australia.

The Laughing Kookaburra is the largest member of the kingfisher family. But while many kingfishers are brightly colored and famed for their dramatic dives down into the water in search of fish, the brown-and-beige Laughing Kookaburra prefers dry woodlands and city parks, not to mention a more practical sit-and-wait style of hunting. Kookaburras will eat almost any kind of meat they can get hold of — insects, small mammals, hotdogs, snakes. Once caught up in the Kookaburra’s strong beak, prey is carried up into the trees and whacked repeated against a branch to kill it and soften the insides up for easy eating.

When they’re not stealing food from picnics or beating up snakes, Kookaburras use their distinctive call as a territorial marker. Everywhere you can hear their laughter belongs to them! Unfortunately, they like nothing better than to sound off first thing in the morning. This tendency to wake people up, whether they want to or not, has earned the Laughing Kookaburra the local nickname “The Bushman’s Alarm Clock.”

Linnaeus’s Two-toed Sloths are expert climbers. When you visit the Tropical Rainforest, you may catch Wookiee hanging upside down high in the canopy, or moving slowly along branches and vines. They have two claws on their hands and three claws on their feet, all measuring about 4 inches in length, that help them to hang. Sloths only come down from the trees once every week or so to defecate. Sloths live life in the slow lane, moving about 0.2 miles per hour in the trees, and sleep upwards of 15 hours each day! Sloths are anything but lazy, though. All of this sleeping helps them to conserve energy—an important thing for an animal whose diet of leaves, shoots, and barks is not very nutritious. They have a large, multi-chambered stomach that can hold huge quantities of food. It can take up to a month for a sloth to digest one meal!

The beautiful Luzon Bleeding-heart gets its name for the scarlet markings on its chest. Found throughout primary and secondary forests in the Philippines, the Luzon Bleeding-heart feeds on seeds, berries, and insects along the forest floor. Their call is a mournful coo. The species is generally considered rare or scarce, and is considered to be Near Threatened. It is vulnerable to habitat destruction and hunting.

Malayan Flying Foxes are the largest member of Pteropus! With their striking red or russet heads that turn deep orange during breeding season, these bats are a true wonder of nature. They have large, well-developed eyes for flight navigation and form feeding groups of up to 50 and roosting colonies of up to 20,000 individuals. And let’s not forget about their unique ability to hang effortlessly upside-down in trees with their long, sharp, curved claws. As the world’s only flying mammals, these bats truly are a sight to behold.

Despite their impressive size and territorial behavior, the Malayan Flying Fox is facing a decline in their population. In some areas, colonies of up to 52,000 individuals have been reduced to only 3,000.

A very common dabbling duck of the Nearctic region, and introduced elsewhere where it is sometimes considered an invasive pest, the Mallard occurs on almost any body of shallow water, but especially those with submerged or floating vegetation. In the breeding season the Mallard eats mostly animal foods such as aquatic insect larvae and snails, but at other times of year they favor seeds, aquatic vegetation, and cereal crops. The Mallard usually nests near water but on the ground  in upland areas, with the nest hidden under overhanging vegetation.

The Marbled Teal is a duck of the Mediterranean region, particularly fond of shallow brackish and freshwater pools with abundant emergent vegetation. This is an omnivorous dabbling duck, eating seeds, roots, tubers, and green parts of aquatic plants, as well as aquatic invertebrates like midge larvae. The Marbled Teal is threatened by over-hunting, and by climate change which is causing droughts in an already arid region, reducing the shallow marshes that this duck depends on.

The Mariana Fruit-Dove is a beautiful bird from the Pacific islands. This species is found in various types of forested habitat, but prefers mature native forest where it typically feeds on fruits in the canopy, but may descend to feed in bushes, or even on the ground. They are a secretive species, rarely spotted, and nearly always solitary. The Mariana Fruit-dove has been extirpated (locally no longer present) from Guam and is threatened on Saipan by the introduced brown tree-snake.

In 2020, the National Aviary welcomed its first ever Mariana Fruit-Dove fledgling! The hatching of this beautiful little chick is an important step for securing a brighter future for Mariana Fruit-Doves.

A large and powerful eagle of Africa, the Martial Eagle is found in sparse woodlands and other open habitats such as steppes, savannas, and shrublands. Martial Eagles are extremely powerful predators, feeding on medium-sized vertebrates which they catch after stooping from a high soar. Martial Eagles build large stick nests in the fork of a tree, and their young often stay with their parents for an entire year. Despite generally avoiding settled areas, this species is rapidly declining due to poisoning and shooting, habitat loss, and pollution, as well as collisions and electrocution associated with power lines.

The Masked Bobwhite is a member of the New World quail family. A subspecies of the Northern Bobwhite, the Masked Bobwhite is distinguished primarily by the male’s striking appearance—it has a mostly un-patterned black head and throat and rich cinnamon-colored underparts.  Female Masked Bobwhites are very similar to females of the other subspecies.  Masked Bobwhites have a very restricted range including only a few locations in extreme southern Arizona and central Sonora, Mexico.  These populations were historically very vulnerable to overgrazing, habitat fragmentation, and drought. Today, only about 200 Masked Bobwhites live in the wild, but an active captive breeding and release program is helping Masked Bobwhites raised in human care to begin to repopulate their scrubby grassland habitat.  Masked Bobwhites have a very short nesting season because they will breed only when humidity is high, and this occurs naturally only in association with the seasonal monsoon rains.

The Masked Lapwing is also known as the Spur-winged Plover because of a unique feature: each of its wings has a yellow spur at the “elbow” (carpal joint) used to keep predators away from nests and chicks. Masked Lapwings are common throughout Australia, Indonesia, New Guinea, and New Zealand, where they inhabit marshes, mudflats, beaches, and grasslands. Within a few hours of hatching, Masked Lapwing chicks are able to leave the nest, swim, and feed themselves. Chicks may stay with their parents for 1-2 years, however, and may even assist with future nesting attempts. The nests of Masked Lapwings fail frequently due to destruction by cattle, human disturbance, mowing, predation, and flooding.