Welfare considerations at Lincoln Park Zoo aren’t limited to the classic charismatic zoo animals like lions and zebras and polar bears. Zoo scientists work to improve conditions for every animal, from turtles and nocturnal birds like tawny frogmouths to the giraffes at Regenstein African Journey.
Like other animals at the zoo, birds receive annual welfare assessments. Their body condition, age, social structure, any health issues, diets, training, enrichment, and the design of their habitats are all considered. With birds, nesting materials and perching considerations are also part of the equation. Zoo staff try to emulate the birds’ natural environments as much as possible, and also look at each individual’s high-priority needs to make sure each bird is getting what it needs to thrive. This often means getting creative and collaborative with other zoo departments.
Luzon bleeding heart doves at McCormick Bird House
“If an individual goes through a bigger life event, like the loss of a mate or an age-related loss of function due to injury, we do surveys to understand its wellbeing during those times to help it thrive with those circumstances,” Hope B. McCormick Curator of Birds Nicole Finch-Mason explains. “Wellbeing is more than just focusing on the bird itself, but how it uses and functions in the environment around it, and how it interacts with other organisms. A keeper friend of mine once said, ‘Our quality of care determines their quality of life,’ and I believe that wholly.”
The Bird department works closely with the zoo’s Animal Welfare Science Program researchers—they’re all a part of the zoo’s Animal Care team. Their collaboration looks like a conversation, with projects and ideas originating from both parties. But the Bird staff also works with the Nutrition team, veterinary services, and others to make sure welfare is being looked at holistically. Here are some of what’s happening now in the Bird department at Lincoln Park Zoo.
Tawny Frogmouths at Night
Zoo scientists are tracking the behavior of these birds through two cameras in each of two different habitats. They record the behavior and location of four tawny frogmouths every 15 minutes, 24 hours a day. One of the goals is to ensure that the two pairs, who were just recently introduced, are in the best groupings for their individual welfare (tawny frogmouths are monogamous, making these relationships extremely important).
Additionally, staff hope these observations will lead to more impactful feeding strategies, more effective enrichment for the evening hours, and improved perching placement to accommodate how they use their space when they are awake. However, the main goal is simply to discover what these nocturnal animals do at night—something that is difficult when the birds aren’t very active during part of the day. The knowledge they gain will hopefully lead to better and more informed decisions about their care.
ZooMonitor Research Coordinator Natasha Wierzal of the zoo’s Animal Welfare Science Program says that so far, they’ve discovered that the birds are using many different areas in their habitat—a surprise, as they only flock to a couple of favorite spots during the day. She explains next steps: “After we get an idea of what their current 24-hour activity patterns are like, we will try some changes to their husbandry, such as moving training times or offering more overnight enrichment, to see how they respond The overall goal is to make sure the habitat and husbandry routines are providing opportunities for great welfare for both the nocturnal and diurnal species in those habitats.”
Caring for Virginia
Virginia, a 19-year-old cinereous vulture, came to the zoo in 2024 and, due to a previously injured wing, a partial amputation was conducted. Virginia’s long-term welfare prospects were affected. Zoo staff worked with a medical orthotics company to create an individualized neoprene sleeve for her amputated wing. This process included trying different models and closure systems that would keep the wing clean and dry.
This device is changed out monthly, but staff continue to monitor both Virginia and her companion Leon. This helps identify areas where Virginia is most likely to bump her wing, so her caretakers can make modifications to accommodate her change in balance and make sure the habitat is as accessible to her as possible. Staff continue to collect data about Virginia’s perching behaviors and have been working on changes to her habitat based on that information. They are also working on a new perching structure to allow maximum space use even with her disability.
Improving Insect Welfare
You are what you eat, the old adage goes. And many birds are insectivores—so it’s to the zoo’s benefit to make sure those insects are as nutritious and healthy as possible. And there are a lot of insects that go into bird care; in 2024, McCormick Bird House received 2.76 million waxworms, superworms, crickets, and mealworms, which is about 63% of the total insects taken in by the zoo (although they have the word “worms” in their name, waxworms, superworms, and mealworms are actually the larval stages of different insects).
Thus, the zoo has worked to better understand and improve the welfare of the feeder insects in the zoo’s care, which in turn increases the welfare of the birds that dine on them. Improving their nutrition is both designed to make them more nutritious for the birds and increase the insects’ life spans in a way that would be more cost-effective for the zoo.
“We wanted to promote positive insect welfare by understanding their natural history and housing, and feeding them in a way that is more reflective of that information,“ Finch-Mason says. “We’ve started to really utilize them in better ways, and we hope this will lead to better overall bird health and longevity as well.”
Rethinking Nutrition
Bird diets, Finch-Mason says, are extremely complex—perhaps the most complex part of their care. Amounts, variety, individual idiosyncracies, and necessary supplementation are all considered for the more than 60 avian species at Lincoln Park Zoo. Part of the issue is that bird diets are very diverse. Different species are grouped by the types of food they eat; some eat grains, some are fruit-eaters, some are carnivores. “We also have to consider breeding season diet changes, as some birds need more fruit or meat or a different variety of items to give them optimal health during breeding and egg-laying periods,” she explains.
Over the past few years, her department documented how much food was given and how much was consumed to many of the bird species to determine the relationship between the amount of food provided and body condition. Staff have also been working with Nutrition Center staff to go through every bird’s diet to make improvements in their nutritional profile by the end of the year, which is an ambitious undertaking. Complicating matters is the fact that birds live in multi-species habitats, so they must consider the best way to keep all parties safe while meeting their dietary needs. This work also involves trialing new foods to increase uptake of needed nutrients such as protein, calcium, or vitamin D.
One example of how a diet change has helped a bird’s health involves cinereous vulture Leon, Virginia’s habitat partner. “He was very obese a few years ago, and we also discovered he had a heart condition. Through changes to the makeup and quantity of his diet, Leon has lost weight. He’s also taking some medicine, and is overall much healthier and more active now, with improved cardiac health,” Finch-Mason says.
The Importance of Perching
As one of the essential and most common natural behaviors that avian species engage in, perching is extremely important to the health and wellbeing of birds. At Lincoln Park Zoo, animal caretakers consider bird-safe materials, perching diameter according to avian foot size, texture, height, spacing, flight patterns, and more. “It’s a bit like Tetris sometimes,” Finch-Mason says, “but it’s also a fun way to be creative as a keeper. We use trees and natural materials, but other times we make perching from concrete, rope, coated plastic, or a combination of those elements. Knowing the birds as individuals and understanding their natural histories are important to selecting the right materials and placing the materials appropriately.”
If you’ve ever seen Ethan the bald eagle at Regenstein Birds of Prey, you’ve seen this work in action. Space-use analysis showed that Ethan, who has an injured wing (in accordance with U.S. law, all bald eagles in zoos are nonreleasable individuals due to physical or developmental issues), preferred to spend time in the high perches at the back of his habitat. Animal Care staff decided to add height at the front, tailored to Ethan’s needs, so he would use more of the space available to him.
He now has a faux tree that was created through collaboration between the Bird department and the zoo’s Facilities staff to meet his specific welfare needs. Bird staff helped create a visual representation of what features were needed, and Facilities built it, with additional input from Bird staff as the project was making progress. “The most exciting part of this design is that the fake branches going around the trunk of the tree simulate a winding staircase design to accommodate Ethan’s disability, and it has been successful,” Finch-Mason says.
One of the most innovative aspects about the tree is that it has small branches that can be attached to it in different ways, allowing the care team to refresh the habitat while supporting and improving Ethan’s foot health.
Tracking the Action
Activity mapping, in which observers document what animals are doing at any given time, can help answer questions for researchers that result in better decisions for their care. Bird department staff members might track some bird species for months or years, gathering data to learn which birds like to spend time together or which ones need different perches to keep their feet healthy. In many of the cases above, activity mapping has been helpful in determining how best to help animals like Virginia, as she got used to her prosthetic, and Ethan.
For example, a species might not be using all of their habitat. “We want to know why they don’t seem to utilize their full space, so we are changing some dynamics of their habitat in order to see if any of those changes leads to better space use,” says Finch-Mason.
All this is just part of the job at Lincoln Park Zoo, where the wellbeing of every individual is considered. For more information on the Animal Welfare Science Program, visit this page. For more information on how Nutrition staff feed the animals, go here.
