Jurong Bird Park, Singapore

On our first full day in Singapore, we visited the Jurong Bird Park. Getting there was fairly easy with the help of our GPS. The only thing was that my bro's GPS and ours were set to bring us to our destination differently. His was via the shortest route while ours was via the fastest route. So while we were on the road, we went on our separate routes halfway through the journey but ended up at the same place. Luckily we still managed to keep tabs with each other via our walkie talkies (making phone calls to each other would have been costlier). After that we decided to sync both units so that we could travel together. However, there were days when we travelled in one car together since my car could seat seven people albeit a tiny bit crammed in the third row at the back.

Upon arrival at the Jurong Bird Park, we were warmly greeted by the park crew who immediately ushered us to their group photo spot. Many tourist attractions offer their photography services, with a premium fee of course. You can view the photos later and select whichever ones you like to purchase if you wish. They will then print the pictures out and frame them for you in their customised cardboard frame as a souvenir. If you don't purchase them, that's all right too.

All ready to explore the park:


The birdpark is nicely planned with convenient facilities such as restrooms, drink/snack stations, and food outlets at appropriate locations. The landscaping was well done and spick and span too. We saw many birds (too many to name or even remember their names) and attended a show at the Fuji Hawk Walk (sponsored by Fuji film I guess, hence the name) which featured an assortment of birds, especially birds of prey. When the host requested for a child volunteer, Caitlin raised her hand and was lucky enough to get chosen. After introducing herself, she held up a pair of sticks with some meat at the tips for a hawk to swoop down and snatch it off with its beak.


There was also another photo opportunity where she let a bird perch on her leather-gloved hand.

We walked around admiring parrots, pelicans, flamingoes and many other birds, and read some interesting facts about them.

Caitlin comparing her 'wingspan' with that of a pelican's:

Penguins in the Penguin Exhibit:

We then proceeded to another show called Birds and Buddies. Many birds came on stage, flew up above, swooped down and some, like the parrots and eagles, performed tricks -- putting balls into nets ala basketball, flying through hoops held up by spectators, singing songs in various languages and counting.

Flamingoes made an appearance at the Birds and Buddies Show:
It so happened that when we were there, the park had some Latin American events promotion and right after the show, a group of capoeristas came on stage to introduce the Brazilian artform of capoeira, which Caitlin is learning back home. They shared with the spectators what capoeira is and demonstrated some moves. They then invited some children (again, Caitlin put up her hand and got chosen!) and adults to join them on stage to perform some moves.

After lunch, we took the panorail for a ride around the entire park. Shortly after we got inside the cabin, it started to rain heavily. We were fortunate to be sheltered in the aircon carriage which also had a running commentary of the spots we were passing overhead, providing information of the various birds in those areas.

Caitlin monkeying around inside the panorail:

After we alighted from the panorail, we decided to call it a day and headed back to our apartment to rest.

The tickets ACE bought at the birdpark were Parkhopper tickets which provided some savings for those who wanted to also visit the zoo or night safari. We purchased the Bird Park-Night Safari package, so after our afternoon rest, the three of us geared up for an evening out at the Night Safari, while my brother, sis-in-law, nephew and parents went out for dinner on their own.