A ruby red macaw, the beautiful, brilliantly-coloured bird from the parrot family, grabs the spotlight as it mimics human voice and says hello at Kookyland, a newly opened walk-in aviary at Mettupalayam, near Coimbatore.
There are 15 varieties of exotic birds, seven varieties of exotic rodents, ball pythons, ferrets, iguanas, bearded dragon and hedgehog at the aviary located at the foothills of Udhagamandalam. A flock of sun conures, a medium-sized yellow bird from South America, make screechy, repeated sounds as it takes off. Rainbow lorikeets, the sweet-natured parrots with a multi-colour plumage from Australia feast on sliced papaya, guava and water melon served on plates by visitors.
“It’s a busy morning as the birds are basking in sunshine to get the daily dose of Vitamin D,” says M M Sridhar, who set up the aviary from his private collection. There are no cages here, instead they flutter about freely in this man-made habitat set up with landscaping, natural perches, and mist chambers including an artificial fountain.
Sridhar, who runs resorts in Kodaikanal and Yercaurd, has been rearing exotic pets including pocket monkeys, pygmy marmosets, and meerkats at his home in Mettur for over 15 years. (The wildlife protection Act 1972 covers indigenous species and it is considered illegal to rear Indian species. However, for exotic birds, one can voluntarily list them on the parivesh portal set up by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.)
“When I was scouting for a location to display the exotic birds, fellow pet lover MJ Aslam, who runs windmills in Tenkasi, readily offered his land at Mettupalayam spread across 6000 square feet and surrounded by greenery,” says Sridhar, adding that the project started moving with help from his brother P Selvasekar.
The exotic sun conure birds | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S
Though the concept of a walk-in aviary is popular abroad especially in island nations, it is yet to pick up here. In Tamil Nadu, there are small aviaries in Yelagiri and Yercaud. “A large enclosure where the birds have the freedom to fly away from humans is mandatory and is part of the stringent protocol. The aviary design has passages to restrict people there,” says Nanda Kishore of Avian Society of India who works closely with animal protection and rehabilitation. He helped Hyderabad forest department set up the zoo with a scientific protocol and also an aviary at Indore zoo in Madhya Pradesh.
“While the Indore aviary with 35 species and a total of 700 birds was challenging, the Mettupalayam one was easy. We carefully selected the species, based on size and geographical locations to avoid in-fighting and enriched the space with greenery as the birds like to forage on leaves. And, ensured that the diet is rich in calcium and proteins,” adds Nanda Kishore, a biotechnologist who has spent over two decades studying exotic birds as a hobby.
Ruby Macaw | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S
Sridhar reiterates that a feeding cycle protocol helps control mortality. “The sun conures feast on sprouts, fruits and sunflower seeds, while the lorikeets and Indonesian birds like red molucans and yellow-backed chattering lory prefer fresh fruit. We have as many as 600 Australian finches that follow a millet-diet. The environment has to be kept clean and the water cycle has to be changed every one hour. Sometimes, we also add Indian herbs like tulsi to the drinking water.”
In addition to an in-house kitchen and a room for medical emergencies, visits by a doctor and a dietician once in 10 days are mandatory. “We keep track of weight gain of the birds every week and change the diet accordingly.”
Nanda Kishore believes that community parks teach children compassion. “When you have pets, your children grow up with a very positive sense towards life. They understand life...” K Mohanprasath, a birding enthusiast agrees, saying the human-bird interaction make children curious to learn more and eventually conservation.
African grey parrot | Photo Credit: Siva Saravanan S
At the aviary, Satish Kumar K, Kishore M and Ashokan U — from the IT industry in Bengaluru who stopped by at the park enroute to Udhagamandalam – take a break from photographing the birds to say they are enjoying the novelty of this outing. “It’s a first time experience,” says Satish. “The colourful sight perks you up immediately. We never realised that we spent over an hour, clicking selfies with the macaws and laughing our stress away.”
The aviary is located on Mettupalayam-Coonoor Road and is open from 9 am till dusk. The entry fee is ₹ 100.
