Sharing knowledge with our peers

From Oct 28 through October 30, ambassador bird care professionals from zoos across the country landed in Atlanta for a three-day seminar in all things ambassador bird! This was the fifth annual Working Bird Husbandry Workshop. This year’s topics included trainers and behaviors, equipment use, free lofting raptors, and many others. A crowd favorite is an exercise where we get cadaver raptors from the local wildlife rescue center, and keepers get an opportunity to practice using a dremel to shape a bird’s beak. Some new additions to this year’s program included a demonstration of applying a track pack to a raptor and voluntary wing trimming on our blue-and-yellow macaw. As in past years, we demonstrated attaching anklets to the raptors who wear them and allowed participants to practice their skills. Attendees were also given ample opportunity to ask questions of our avian certified veterinarian and get insights about training challenges at their facilities. A big thank you to all who attended and helped to make it a successful workshop!

Some feedback we received from attendees included:

“I really enjoyed my time at the workshop. I wasn’t 100% sure what to expect, but I was more than happy with everything. I think the topics were well thought out and meshed together to make a cohesive workshop. I also like that everything discussed wasn’t just applicable to one type of situation (example free-flight birds), but that it can be applied in any situation. Everyone was very welcoming and easy to talk with. It’s nice to see that I’m not the only one with training challenges and that my challenges can be overcome – it is possible! Thank you for a great workshop!”  

“This is the best workshop I’ve ever attended. I feel like I learned about so many topics that I can actually go back and immediately start implementing and planning for.”

“Experts in your fields! Thank you for taking the time to share what you know with the rest of us. I believe we need more workshops like this for a variety of topics.”
Rebecca Young
Assistant Curator of Ambassador Animals