Smithsonian National Zoo’s New Bird House Highlights Migratory Birds’ Incredible Journeys

With the new Bird House exhibits, zoo curators and scientists from the Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center are working together to study species while they’re still relatively common. Hallager’s staff is learning how to successfully care for bird species that have never been kept in zoos before and raise generations of them as a line of defense against future population decline. The zoo’s husbandry team raised the Baltimore orioles, wood thrushes, and scarlet tanagers in the new Bird House. Meanwhile, Migratory Bird Center researchers are working in the wild, collecting data about birds in their natural habitats and informing the zoo’s conservation goals.