In my third “Where to Shoot Birds” set of blogs we’ll go to some zoos. Zoos are a great place to be exposed to exotic birds you might not normally see in the wild unless you are very dedicated to capturing wild birds on camera. I’m not. I’m good with going to a zoo.

This owl was captured at Bearizona in Williams, AZ during a Birds of Prey show.

I caught this handsome fella wandering around Wildlife Word Zoo in Litchfield Park, AZ.

The rest of these images, in fact, were taken at the Litchfield Zoo. I spend a lot of time there. Every year, for ten years, as a first-grade teacher, we took our classes to Phoenix in the spring as a culmination of our big fourth quarter animals unit. The kids loved it and I got to shoot!! As an end of the year gathering I’d show a slideshow of the kids and the animals…they LOVED it.

They rescue a lot of parrots. People get them as pets and don’t realize the commitment so they bring them here. Or, the zookeeper shared, often times a parrot will outlive its owner and will need to be brought here as an orphan. The zookeeper equated have a parrot to having a two-year-old toddler in the house…for fifty to a hundred years. Let THAT sink in.

As you enter the front gates and veer left the first exhibit you’ll see are the flamingoes. If you didn’t have 100 first graders clamoring to move on one could spend a LOT of time watching them and shooting the different patterns, designs, colors and reflections of these beautiful birds.

Throughout the park are ducks, swans and geese. I found these ducks at the far end of the park helping each other out.

It’s October 31st…need I say more?

I love these cranes! They are in the relatively new African Safari section. These guys, in particular, were seen on a little trolly ride you can take through sections of this area. I love the backlight on his crown.

The ostriches were also on the trolly ride and I discovered they can be quite curious. This one got all up in my grill and actually tapped my lens. The driver had to shoo them off with a rake.

The color and size of this bill was remarkable so I SHOT it! He must have tremendous neck muscles.

A flamingo close-up. What interesting eyes…

I like the pattern and color of the water here as much if not more than I do the actual bird.

An action shot!! You gotta be quick!

Interesting looking bird walking the plank.

Take your camera to the zoo and see what you can find! Birds are fun to shoot because you tend to not have bars and cages between you and them.

Happy shooting!