Bird Garden St. Louis Zoo Has New Settings For Birds, Plants

Sun., Dec. 15, 1996

New York Times

New gardens for exotic birds and Chinese plants have opened in St. Louis.

Birds from North and South America, Australia and Asia can now be seen in natural settings at the St. Louis Zoo’s Bird Garden, the latest addition to the zoo’s natural-habitat attractions, which include Big Cat Country and Jungle of the Apes.

The two-acre Bird Garden stretches from the zoo’s Spanish-style Bird House to the Flight Cage, a zoo landmark since the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Visitors follow a winding pathway past a stream, a waterfall, a reflecting pool and flower beds to six large aviaries, a spacious walk-through aviary and a shaded pavilion overlooking a meadow of white-naped cranes. The Bird Garden houses more than 60 birds, including long-tailed marmots, laughing thrushes, bald eagles, red-billed toucans, Himalayan monal pheasants and blue-faced honeyeaters.

The zoo, in Forest Park in the center of the city, is open every day from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and admission is free. For information, call (314) 781-0900.

The Missouri Botanical Garden celebrated the 50th anniversary of the sister-city relationship between St. Louis and Nanjing, China, with the opening of the Margaret Grigg Nanjing Friendship Garden, named for a philanthropist who donated the money for the half-acre garden in memory of her parents. A hand-carved white marble bridge, a moon gate and a central pavilion were designed and built by artisans in Nanjing and reconstructed at the garden under the supervision of the Nanjing Bureau of Urban Parks.

Because very few plants are used in Chinese gardens, elaborate walls, pavilions, bridges, decorative pavements and eroded limestone formations called Tai Hu stones enclose plantings of pine, bamboo, willow, plum, chrysanthemum, peonies, banana, narcissus and orchid - many of which originated in China.

The garden is at 4344 Shaw Blvd., and it is open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission is $3, $1.50 for seniors; free for those 12 and under. For information, call (314) 577-9400.