{"id":3236,"date":"2026-03-04T19:03:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-05T00:03:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/?p=3236"},"modified":"2026-03-05T10:04:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-05T15:04:26","slug":"birds-of-a-feather-cincinnati-zoo-visits-miami-hamilton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/2026\/03\/birds-of-a-feather-cincinnati-zoo-visits-miami-hamilton\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds of a Feather: Cincinnati Zoo Visits Miami Hamilton"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tricia Cherry —<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Wilks Conference Center recently, RA@M sponsored an event in partnership with the Cincinnati Zoo in which attendees were able to meet and hear about a handful of their birds. \u201cBirds of a Feather\u201d is an educational program presented by the zoo, designed for use in schools. The handlers, Dustin and Lindsey, brought in birds specifically from their bird show Wings of Wonder, as these birds are accustomed to humans and knew how to behave, though it was warned that the birds do not liked to be handled or pet by strangers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before the birds were taken out of their crates, feathers were passed around to the audience so they could get a sense of what the birds would feel like, and to satisfy the audience\u2019s curiosity without letting them approach the birds. Feathers are the one defining characteristic of birds that no other animals possess; if it has feathers, it\u2019s a bird. This works better than saying birds can fly and that\u2019s their defining trait, as many birds are flightless, such as ostriches and penguins, and there are also other animals that can fly despite not being birds.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
A pair of feathers that was passed around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Tail feathers that are still attached.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The first bird the audience was introduced to was named Terri, a thirty-year-old female rhinoceros hornbill. The species is named for the large casques on their heads above their beaks, which help regulate body temperature. The rhinoceros hornbill is found in Southeast Asia and is the national bird of Malasia. They are cavity nesters in nature, meaning they nest in the cavities of trees, which have been carved out by woodpeckers, beehives, bears, and other animals, until the cavity is big enough to support a family of birds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the case of rhinoceros hornbills, a mated pair will build a mud-wall around the entrance of the cavity, leaving just enough room for food to be passed through. Once the eggs are laid, the mother will stay insulated behind the mud-wall with the eggs, with her mate bringing her food and water during this time\u2014around two to three months, including after the chicks have hatched.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Terri with her handler Dustin.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Terri was brought to the Cincinnati Zoo originally as part of a breeding program, but zookeepers soon noticed that she was closer to the keepers than male hornbills, and was even avoiding the males. Terri has fostered chicks before but has never laid her own eggs. Terri now thrives as a major attraction in the Wings of Wonder bird show. She boasts being the only rhinoceros hornbill in the show. Despite also being the largest animal at the event, Terri is reportedly only four pounds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second bird we met was Tanzi, one of the smallest raptors in the world, native to Africa. Tanzi was a very vocal, very excited pigmy falcon. In fact, at this point in the presentation, a pause was needed, to the amusement of the audience, so she could get all that excitement out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Tanzi, the pygmy falcon.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Pygmy falcons are under a foot in length and weigh well under a pound. They eat a variety o small animals with the assistance of their powerful talons and sharp beaks. Tanzi, like Terri before her, is from a sexually dimorph species, which means one can tell at a glance between male and female. Tanzi\u2019s back feathers are brown, marking her as female, whereas males sport gray feathers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tanzi joined the Cincinnati Zoo when she was just a few days old, having been born at another zoo. According to Lindsy, her handler, \u201cShe\u2019s been in the bird show for a few years now. She [usually] sits on a glove, she comes out, she looks pretty, everybody loves her. She doesn\u2019t have to do much to impress.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pygmy falcons are cavity nesters as well, similar to rhinoceros hornbills, though in this case they cohabitate with weaver birds, who build large nests. In return for the cohabitation, pygmy falcons help to protect their hosts from danger. Pygmy falcons are very social birds who mate for life, and often one weaver bird nest will include two or three couples. These falcons are considered rare only because they are elusive and difficult to spot, but they are not endangered.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Tanzi is doing her best.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The third bird shown to the audience was Gabby, who is a yellow-headed Amazon parrot. She was turned into the zoo by someone who found her underneath a carousel and mistook her for belonging to the bird show. Parrots are excellent mimickers and can copy the sounds of other birds, or even their own predators. Adult parrots have the intelligence of a human toddler, so they have (for birds) advanced planning skills.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like most parrots, Gabby can \u201ctalk\u201d since she was raised around humans. This is why the keepers are sure that Gabby was once a pet, because she mimics human speech so well. Gabby is also able to sing opera, which she loves to do. Dustin speculated that Gabby\u2019s previous owner listened to the opera often, as it takes repeated exposure to something for a parrot to be able to mimic it.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
\u201cHello!\u201d says Gabby.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Parrots are difficult pets to keep, particularly because they\u2019re so long-lived; a well-cared for parrot can live up to eighty years. They also can be loud, messy, and expensive to maintain, and given their keen intelligence, they understand more than most animals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The topic of pets segued into a surprise towards the end of the event because the last animal wasn\u2019t a bird, but they make excellent pets despite many people having misgivings about them.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Chai, the rat.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

This particular kind of rat, called Dumbo rats after their large ears, is a type of rat that is specifically bred to be kept as a pet. They are very clean, can be trained to do simple tricks, and live up to four years if given quality care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Chai and her sisters are actually dwarf-Dumbo rats, meaning some are much smaller than others despite being from the same litter. Chai received full dwarf genes while her sister Vanilla Skye was born with half-dwarf genes, meaning Vanilla Sky is much bigger.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Chai (front) and her sister Vanilla Skye (back) are littermates despite being different sizes.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The Wings of Wonder show, where most of these birds can be seen performing, is one of several shows or displays put on by the zoo, which involve a variety of animals. The schedule for these shows is available on the Cincinnati Zoo\u2019s website here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tricia Cherry — In the Wilks Conference Center recently, RA@M sponsored an event in partnership with the Cincinnati Zoo in which attendees were able […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":9361,"featured_media":3245,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3236","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-our-communities"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9361"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3236"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3258,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3236\/revisions\/3258"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3245"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3236"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.miamioh.edu\/mu-regional-pulse\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}