BIRDS

There are thousands of places worldwide where you can see captive birds. They include almost all the zoos, as well as scores of bird gardens, parks, country homes, and specialist collections. Between them they hold well over a thousand species and subspecies of birds (in Britain the National Federation of Zoological Gardens lists 1,005 species among its member zoos). Altogether there are probably more than 180,000 individual birds in collections - a fairly substantial number. Less than half of the species breed regularly, which means that many of the remaining five hundred species will probably rely upon wild caught birds to sustain their numbers in captivity. This may be a disheartening statistic, but it conceals the fact that most of the species that do breed, breed well; and things are improving for many of the rest.

Britain's best known bird collections are the various centres of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust which keep the best and most complete collections of waterfowl in the world. The Trust's centre at Slimbridge in Gloucestershire is the only place on Earth where you can see all six species of flamingo (four breeding well). The Trust also provides essential protected wintering areas for vast numbers of migrating waterfowl in Britain, and their work with endangered species - captive breeding and reintroducing birds into the wild - has been hugely successful, and highly influential.

Other specialist collections include several falconry centres which breed birds of prey. They will usually mount falconry displays for visitors, and several have put their falconry techniques to good effect in reintroduction programmes. A number of bird gardens have large and successful collections of tropical birds. Among the best are the World Pheasant Association collection at Childe Beale near Reading, Bird World at Famhain in Surrey, Harewood Bird Gardens near Leeds, and Paradise Park at Hale in Comwall.