Willawong Station: Parrots of Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo

One of the largest and least known public collections of free flying parrots on the West Coast is to be found at Willawong Station at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo. The interactive exhibit includes Budgerigar parrots, Cockatiels, and Rosellas in a setting that is designed to mimic the environment of the parrots' native Australia.

Additionally, Willawong Station hosts a colony of a New Zealand oddity, the Kea parrot, considered one of the most intelligent parrots on the planet! This surprisingly large (over two pounds) parrot has an interesting vocalization:

Let us state clearly that we adamantly oppose keeping parrots or any other wild animals in zoos. Parrots are not museum pieces, which is the way most zoos tend to treat parrots, and other wild animals. We support captive breeding for conservation purposes such as underway at the Al Wabra Wildlife Preservation Center in Qatar for the Spix's macaw. The only zoo anywhere in the world currently engaged in a parrot captive breeding program for conservation purposes, as far as we know, is Loro Parque, on Tenerife. Any other parrot exhibit at any other zoo, as far as we are concerned, has zero conservation value!