Planes, trains and automobiles…you name a mode of transportation and I’ll bet an animal has taken it. As part of our membership in the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, Lincoln Park Zoo participates in cooperative management of animals, which means that animals born or hatched here in Chicago are often transferred to other accredited zoos.

Great care is taken with these moves, particularly with birds, many of which often can only be transferred during Chicago’s milder spring or fall seasons.

Since we’ve had some busy breeding seasons lately here at the Bird Department, we’re busy with transfers (which is a good thing). Many 2010 and 2011 chicks are now old enough to leave home—mergansers, broadbills, woodhoopoes, Nicobar pigeons, Micronesian kingfishers, kookaburras and sunbitterns are all slated to leave Lincoln Park Zoo in the next few weeks before cold weather sets in.

At the same time, new birds will be arriving to fill exhibits and meet prospective mates here. I will be exhausted by the early morning airport runs and interstate road trips, but I’m looking forward to a busy, happy shipping season!

Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds Colleen Lynch