Very educational and fun National Aviary in Pittsburgh

The palm cockatoo is found in rainforests and woodlands of New Guinea and the Cape York Peninsula, Queensland, Australia; apparently they can sometimes be seen around Sorong, Indonesia (where my scuba diving trip was last year) although I never saw one

The burrowing owl, like the ones we've seen in Cape Coral, can be found in grasslands, rangelands, agricultural areas, deserts, or any other open dry area with low vegetation; they nest and roost in burrows, such as those excavated by prairie dogs

What a cool job to have!; unfortunately it was difficult to hear her talk about the birds because of all the noise being made by the birds

The Venezuelan troupial, the national bird of Venezuela, is also found in Colombia and the Caribbean ABC islands and Puerto Rico; the term troupial is from French troupe (troop), so named because they live in flocks

This African penguin at the National Aviary spotted a couple of friends and tried his hardest to get closer to them; the aviary has a breeding program for many species and the first two African penguin chicks hatched in February 2012

The bald eagle builds the largest nest of any North American bird and the largest tree nests ever recorded for any animal species, up to 13 ft deep, 8.2 ft wide, and 1.1 tons in weight

The toco toucan is the largest and best known species in the toucan family (thanks to Froot Loops); it is found in semi-open habitats throughout a large part of central and eastern South America

The scissor-tailed flycatcher is also known as the Texas bird-of-paradise with its primary range being south-central US; they migrate through Texas and eastern Mexico to their winter non-breeding range, from southern Mexico to Panama

Inca terns breed on the coasts of Peru and Chile, and are restricted to the Humboldt Current feeding on small fish like anchovies; they are quite loud making sounds like a cat's meow

The Bali myna is critically endangered with fewer than 100 adults assumed to currently exist in the wild; it is restricted to the island of Bali in Indonesia, where it is the island's only endemic vertebrate species

The black-faced ibis is found in grassland and fields in southern and western South America; it remains fairly common in Argentina and Chile, this species has now been almost entirely wiped out from the Peruvian part of its range

Scarlet-headed blackbirds occur in pairs in large reed beds in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and southern Brazil; they are monogamous and make a nest which is an open cup placed in the crotch of a shrub or woven into vegetation

With a length (from the top of its head to the tip of its long pointed tail) of about one meter, Hyacinth macaws are longer than any other species of parrot; native to eastern South America, they are the largest macaw and the largest flying parrot species

The Guam kingfisher is now extinct in the wild thanks to the brown tree snake; the species persists as a captive population of fewer than two hundred individuals at breeding facilities

The great argus is a species of pheasant from SE Asia with one of the most elaborate mating rituals; the male dances before the female with his wings spread into two enormous fans

Lee and I remember the hadada ibis from Africa because of their extremely loud calls early in the morning; their range has increased in southern Africa by nearly 2 1/2 times in the 20th c. following the introduction of trees in parts that were treeless

Native to New Guinea, the Victoria-crowned pigeon is considered the largest surviving species of pigeon; they walk with an unhurried gait along the forest floor searching for fallen fruit

The heaviest eagle in the world (11-20 lbs), the Steller's sea-eagle lives in coastal NE Asia and mainly preys on fish and water birds; it is a threatened species with a wingspan of 8+ ft

The national bird of Peru, the Andean cock-of-the-rock is native to Andean cloud forests; as you might expect, male cocks-of-the-rock are polygamous, and have nothing to do with nesting once mating is done

The turquoise tanager is a resident bird from Trinidad, Colombia and Venezuela south to Bolivia and much of Brazil (primarily the Amazon); these are social birds usually found in groups in areas of humid forest

Native to densely vegetated habitats in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia, the white-rumped shama is a songbird which has made them popular as caged birds; they've been introduced on Kauai and Oahu

One of my favorite stops in Pittsburgh was the National Aviary; it is the country's largest aviary with birds from all over the world such as the Palawan peacock pheasant

The American flamingo is the only flamingo that naturally inhabits North America with a range as far south as the Galapagos; their life expectancy of 40 years is one of the longest in birds

The golden-breasted starling lives in NE Africa and inhabits the grassland, savannah, the thickets of acacias, dry-thorn forests and shrubland; these monogamous birds nest in tree holes, usually that woodpeckers have left

Roseate spoonbills are sometimes seen in the southern US (a popular place to observe them is Darling National Wildlife Refuge near Cape Coral) like flamingoes, their color is derived from their diet

Blue-crowned motmots are found in forests and woodlands of eastern Mexico; they have a low owl-like call and often sit still, and in their dense forest habitat can be difficult to see, despite their size