Birds of Eden, South Africa

Birds of Eden is a world class "free flight" bird sancuary in the Garden Route.

The unique two hectare dome (the World’s largest) spans over a gorge of indigenous forest. The sanctuary has its own mysterious ruin, which incorporates a walk-behind waterfall. Another feature is its amphitheatre, which has the ability to seat over 200 visitors. The sanctuary’s dome incorporates the ability to synthesise thunder and create short spells of rain from an irrigation system in the dome structure. Roofed viewpoints within the gorge have been erected for use during these brief rain storms.

Like Monkeyland, the popular primate sanctuary next-door, Birds of Eden boasts its own canopy walk, while shorter than the 128m bridge at Monkeyland, it hangs above the clouds. The decision to develop Birds of Eden stems from the need to create a safe environment in which to release a large collection of free-flight African birds, miniature monkeys and the sanctuary also enables bird owners to apply to release their pet birds into the sanctuary, after undergoing rehabilitation.

Facts about Birds of Eden

The area of the bird park is 2,3 hectare (23,000sq meters).
The structure comprises 27 masts of varying heights, between 34 meters and 2 meters.
While the tallest mast is only 34 meters high, the highest point of the dome above the ground is 50m as the canyon breaks away.
The masts are linked by a series of cables which are anchored to specially constructed underground “plugs”, there are several 100 kilometres of cable used to create a grid of cable onto which, the bird mesh rests.
The bird mesh has an area of 3,2 hectares and weighs 80 tonnes.
The masts are made of wire mesh. It is painted green for a more natural ‘look’. 10 tons of paint (10,000 litres) was required to complete this paint job.
The river running over the waterfall and through the length of the bird park (200m) is pumped back in a closed system. There is therefore no pollution of any water sources in the sanctuary.
There are approximately 3,000 birds in the aviary, comprising over 220 species, these numbers increase constantly.

For more information about the Birds-of-Eden please visit the official website. www.birdsofeden.co.za