Parque das Aves

As a kid, I was always a pretty big fan of Fruit Loops. I’m bringing this up because, as you are probably aware, the Fruit Loop marketing character is Toucan Sam. I’ve always thought Toucans were pretty cool, but of course I had never seen one in real life.

This all changed on our visit to the Parque das Aves (Bird Park). We had an extra morning in Foz this trip so we decided to stop by this popular attraction. We had heard that it was pretty interesting and worth a visit.

I am definitely an animal person, but I can’t say that I’ve ever been a bird person. I find them a bit annoying with all the chirping and squawking. I’m specifically talking about the ones people keep as pets, like parakeets.

Although I don’t like pet birds, exotic birds are a different story. Some of these creatures are amazing. We’ve seen some pretty birds in Maringá so far, but nothing incredibly exotic. There is a really pretty blue bird around the local park and a yellow-bellied bird with a chirp that is like nails on a chalk board which wakes me up at about 5:00am every morning. Brazilian birds are definitely vocal.

After our visit, I can now say that the Toucan is my favorite bird and this has nothing to do with Fruit Loops. However, each time I saw one I couldn’t help but think of Toucan Sam.

Walking through the park was like weaving in and out of a rainforest. Most of the area was completely natural. They had some great open aviaries where you could walk right in and get up close to the birds. Almost all of them had a few Tucans in it. I never realized there were so many varieties.

The Toucans were used to being around people. They would just sit right next to you with their huge colorful beaks and distinctly marked bodies. Their feathers looked almost like soft fur. Up close they didn’t seem real. I’ve never seen such vibrant colors.

Of course the Toucans were my favorite part, but we saw lots of other interesting things too. They had just about every kind of macaw as well. There were also a few snakes which I could have easily passed on.

One was an Anaconda and we found out that they eat capybara!!! I never really liked them in the first place, but now they are definitely on my ‘animals I don’t like’ list. They even fall below the annoying birds that wake me up in the mornings.

The Bird Park was definitely a good stop. While I can’t say that I went on some adventure and saw all these birds in their natural habitat, I can say that I’ve at least seen birds native to South America in person.