Feathers will fly in this cock fight. Will it be the cocky upstart in Kuala Lumpur, or the wise old owl, the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore, which rules the roost?
Whose wing rules this boxing ring? Whose beak is on a winning streak? Whose plumage … ugh, these are awful, I give up. Here, look at some pretty birdies while I think of a better way of explaining this.
Singapore and KL are similar cities in some ways. They both swelter in the equatorial heat. They both have Chinatowns and Little Indias and unhealthy obsessions with food. And they can’t help but compare and compete.
Singapore is the wealthy, confident one, but KL has ambition. It is fond of breaking records. It once had the tallest flagpole, until the North Koreans built one taller. The Petronas Towers was the world’s tallest building (although that record seems to fall about every three weeks). And when KL opened the world’s largest walk-in aviary in the 1990s, it seemed like a very pointed bit of one-upmanship. Especially since Singapore held the previous record.
Both are great facilities. There’s something very appealing about going into a large enclosure where birds have enough space to fly. And KL does score a few points in the first round by having the bigger one. It does enrich the experience. For example, both places have the alarmingly bright scarlet ibis, but KL gets a few extra points because theirs are loose in the aviary, while Singapore has theirs in a rather small enclosure.
But Singapore hits back with a flipper. It has something that KL doesn’t: Penguins.
Yes that’s a man pouring fake snow into the penguin enclosure. On the equator. Look, I should think this is pretty cool, but I’m giving this round to KL, because a penguin’s giant, webbed carbon footprint just isn’t worth it. Maybe if they made a polar bear live on the equator, then I’d be more impressed.
Also, Singapore loses points because of THIS guy…
The ‘Sean Penn bird’, as it is commonly known, attacked me twice for trying to take its picture. Maybe I got too close, but if he doesn’t want to get photographed then he shouldn’t live in a bird park, should he?
Forget him. Onto the price battle. KL wins hands down. No contest. But then, Singapore is always going to lose on that front.
So, Singapore swoops in with birds of prey. KL has them too, but Singapore wins for having a falconry-style show, which comes with a nice photo-op at the end. You get to meet this rather imperious gentleman up close.
It’s a dead heat when it comes to large, flightless birds. Both parks have very good displays of ostriches, emus and even cassowaries (there must surely be more cassowaries in zoos than in the wild).
In the lorikeet department, Singapore wins. Their enclosure is bigger and possibly even more lorikeet-filled. For the shutterbugs among you, this is possibly the best photo-op in either park. They’re very colourful and they won’t get all Sean Penn on you. In fact, they’re quite happy to show off for the camera.
Singapore also gets a few more points in the last few rounds for having a great bird of paradise enclosure. They’re amazing-looking creatures, although they’re unfortunately a little shy.
So, is there a clear winner? Unfortunately, I’ll be giving you a frustrating answer.
Both are excellent. They’re definitely worth a trip if you’re in town and you have a few hours to kill. But only a few ornithological obsessives will make a special trip to a city for a bird park. I only visited both because it gave me some blog-fodder. And also because there are some good photo-ops for a camera obsessive like me.
So go to the one that’s closest. But then, I didn’t really have to tell you that, did I?
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