Handpicked experience · Bali
Bali, Indonesia
A ticket to a park laid out along the boundary Wallace drew through the strait east of here, where thirty kilometres of deep water kept two continents' birds apart and a few minutes' walk crosses between them.
Huddle together with colorful avian creatures at the Bali Bird Park!
Visit the gigantic bird sanctuary home to over 1,000 birds of 250 different species in this immersive Bali day tour.
Watch majestic birds of prey as they soar overhead and swoop down for an elaborate show finish!
Don't miss the wildlife shows that Bali Bird Park has in store for you.
See real-life Komodo dragons, the reptilian inspiration for the famous character, King Kong!
Bali Bird Park is suitable for everyone, book the ticket and get amazing deals from The Trip Club.
Enclosures arranged by region along a genuine faunal boundary
Species from both sides of a strait that ice-age land bridges never closed
Papuan display birds whose courtship is the reason to wait around
Nothing between you and the residents in much of the collection
Grounds planted as a tropical botanical collection
A flat, shaded circuit that suits a slow morning
A dated ticket to Bali Bird Park, the walk-through collection near Batubulan, where the aviaries are arranged by region rather than by species and the planting is a botanical collection in its own right.
Sail east from Bali to Lombok and you cross about thirty kilometres of sea. On the far side the birds change. Not gradually, the way they do along a coastline, but abruptly: cockatoos and honeyeaters on one side, woodpeckers and barbets on the other.
Alfred Russel Wallace noticed this in the 1850s and drew a line through the strait, and it turned out to mark something real. The channel is deep, so when sea levels dropped during the ice ages and most of this archipelago fused into a single landmass, that particular gap stayed flooded. Asian animals walked as far as Bali and stopped. Australasian ones reached Lombok and stopped. Two faunas, thirty kilometres apart, that never mixed.
This park is laid out along that idea, which is why walking from one enclosure to the next can take you across a boundary that no animal here could have crossed on its own.
The most spectacular residents come from the Papuan side, and there is a reason those species are unfamiliar to European eyes despite a century of enthusiasm for them. Around 1900 their skins were a fashion commodity: plumes went into hats by the tens of thousands of birds a year, shipped out through these islands to milliners in London, Paris and New York.
The trade collapsed only when importing feathers was legislated against in the 1920s, which is roughly when the birds stopped being an accessory and started being a subject. Their display behaviour, all of it evolved to be seen from below by a specific audience, is the thing worth waiting for here.
Large parrots and cockatoos routinely live past fifty, and some outlast the people who raised them. A bird park is therefore a long commitment rather than a changing exhibition: many of the residents will be here in thirty years.
It also shapes the visit. These are not animals that ignore you. In walk-through aviaries the birds are at eye level and unbarred, they watch what you do with your hands, and anything shiny or loose is of interest to them.
Birds are active early and quiet through the hot middle of the day, so the first two hours after opening are the ones that matter. Free-flight demonstrations run to a board at the entrance rather than a fixed timetable.
Paths are flat and shaded and the whole circuit is comfortable at a slow pace. Rain here is heavy and brief; the covered sections make it a pause rather than an ending.
Feeding the birds anything of your own is not permitted, and flash photography is discouraged near the aviaries.
Open it to pick a date and work out the price.
What the fare covers, and what to budget for separately.
The practical detail, and the answers people actually ask for.
A faunal boundary running through the strait east of Bali, marking where Asian species stop and Australasian ones begin, identified by a naturalist in the 1850s.
That channel is deep, so it stayed flooded when ice-age sea levels dropped and the rest of the archipelago joined up, leaving each side's animals unable to walk across.
Their feathers were a fashion commodity around 1900 and huge numbers were shipped out for hats until importing plumage was legislated against in the 1920s.
Big parrots and cockatoos regularly pass fifty years, so much of a collection like this outlasts the people who set it up.
Many of them are, which puts the birds at eye level with nothing between you and them, and they pay close attention to hands and loose objects.
Early. They quieten through the hot middle of the day, so the first couple of hours after opening are the productive ones.
They are posted on a board at the entrance on the day rather than held to a published schedule.
Downpours here are heavy and short, and the covered stretches make them a pause rather than the end of a visit.