Field Trip #2 – KL Bird Park

We hit the bird park this week! I finally found a suitable time for Cuz to join us (Abang, Adik, our maid and me) to enjoy the KL bird park.

When we arrived at noon, there were just a few foreign tourists and us. Although I’d been there before years ago, I forgot just how big the park is. It seemed like the walkways go on and on and on. Overall it was quite clean – it’s a good sign when Abang doesn’t go around picking up litter and putting it in the rubbish bins. (I’m quite pleased that litter bothers him enough to do something about it but sometimes I have to stop him from picking up really gross and icky rubbish.)

Cuz is generally unafraid of animals. After casually walking past the peacocks he tried to touch their feathers as well. I’m not sure if that counts as “scaring the animals”, though. Later when he ran towards them, flapping his ‘wings’ shouting, “Ka-ka! Ka-ka! Ka-ka!” not only did that immediately fall under the “scaring the animals” category but also prompted a sharp reprimand from me. I have to admit, though, that it looked really hilarious to see a 9-year old boy do that. I think the other visitors thought so too.

Abang generally enjoyed it but only when the birds were at a distance. Peacocks walking around strutting their feathers were a bit too scary for him. That’s understandable, since those birds must look quite imposing to a 3-year old. Each time I carried him past these birds he tensed up and clung on tighter.

We walked around the park observing the birds, taking in the sights and enjoying a relatively cool day. At one point, we walked past some baby flamingos and he said, “Kesian, bird tu. Dia takde Mummy dengan Daddy dia.” (“Poor little birds. They don’t have their Mummy and Daddy with them.”)

Our maid and I worked very hard to keep Adik in his stroller. For most of the trip, there were enough distractions to keep him from struggling to get out. Birds in cages, birds walking freely, birds eating, birds sleeping, birds near a pond, birds making strange noises; for all of 45 minutes Adik didn’t complain being in his stroller.

After that, it was a different story. Cuz wanted to have his picture taken with an eagle resting on his arm. While waiting in line for his turn, our maid was busy chasing Adik around. Abang was in two minds about having this BIG and NOISY bird with SHARP claws near him and quite undecided about joining Cuz for the picture.

When he saw the eagle on Cuz’s arm he bolted. That guy was H-U-G-E! Even Cuz was a little tense when the picture was taken. No wonder Abang backed out.

By 1pm, both older boys were singing the “I’m Hungry” song - Adik could only babble the lyrics - so we went to get some lunch. In the end we were at the Bird Park for only an hour.

I think another half or one hour would have been great. I'd be totally exhausted and ready to collapse, but we would have got more out of the trip.

By the way, there was a rabbit enclosure there too. Hmm, what's their connection to birds?