Feathered Friends: A Trip to the Sylvan Heights Bird Park

Just an hour away from Raleigh, this 20-acre sanctuary and avian breeding center wows visitors with hundreds of exotic birds in open-air aviaries.
by Chika Gujarthi | photography by Juli Leonard

A Caribbean Flamingo builds a mud nest in The Landing Zone at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.

A lush islet sits in the middle of a pond, where murky water offers a deep contrast with the bright pinks and corals of a flock of American Flamingos. Nearby, the blinding-white bodies of Black-Necked Swans catch the eye. Follow them and they may lead to the red-
 beaked Brazilian Teal Ducks, or perhaps toward a blue-faced North American Ruddy Duck trying to catch some rest under a shrub.

It’s hard to believe this is a scene in North Carolina and not some exotic locale — and that it’s just the entrance to the Sylvan Heights Bird Park in Scotland Neck. Here, the 6,300-square-foot International Aviary greets visitors with a preview of what they’ll see in the rest of this 20-acre sanctuary.

From her office, Katie Gipple Lubbock has a perfect view of the excitement the aviary ignites in children and adults alike. “I love to hear the squeals of surprise and delight when they see the flamingos for the first time,” says Lubbock, who is the park’s media and communications coordinator. “You know that they are instantly engaged.”

Several paths lead past Toad Hall Pavilion at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.

Sylvan Heights Bird Park has origins deeply rooted in conservation. In 1981, British aviculturist Mike Lubbock and his wife, Ali, who had worked with rare and endangered birds around the world, moved to Sylva, North Carolina, to start their own avian breeding center. They established it on land owned by a friend-turned-business-partner, making use of the area’s mild climate to raise birds from all over the globe, especially waterfowl like ducks, geese and swans. Many of the birds they raised found new homes at educational institutions like zoos, aquariums and nature centers. Others, like the White-faced Whistling Duck, which is native to sub-Saharan Africa, and the Bahama Pintail, which is native to Trinidad, were bred for wild reintroduction projects.


After their friend passed, the Lubbocks found a new property 400 miles east, in Scotland Neck. By 1989, they had moved their full collection of birds to the current location. In 2006, the breeding center expanded its grounds to include a publicly accessible bird park in partnership with the North Carolina Zoological Society. The Sylvan Heights Bird Park would offer visitors an enjoyable and interactive way to learn about birds and their conservation without disturbing the work being done inside the breeding center. The initial park was around 10 acres, with six aviaries representing six of the seven continents (Antarctic birds do not do well in North Carolina weather).

A Scarlet Ibis stretches its wings.

Over the last two decades, the park has doubled in size. It now includes approximately 3,000 birds of 104 species on exhibit to the public. The adjacent breeding center, which is not open to the public, houses an additional 1,400 birds of 140 species. The total number spikes each breeding season with hundreds of young hatchlings. Together, the breeding center and the park add up to about 28 acres, making them the largest such institution in North America.

The restrooms at Sylvan Heights Bird Park share space with an extensive egg exhibit.  

A slew of full-time and part-time employees, along with many volunteers and interns, help run both aspects of the park by helping with tasks like feeding, gardening, event planning, outreach programs and visitor services. “In the past year, volunteers have contributed over 4,800 hours of their time,” says Lubbock, noting that student organizations and scout groups often contribute volunteer hours during their visits. “Without the volunteers, the park could not fulfill its mission as effectively and efficiently.”

Julie Connolly started out as a volunteer bird feeder in 2018 but after a year found herself on staff as an education assistant. “I had successfully avoided public speaking of any kind for 40-plus years, so when I was asked to assist in education, I almost said no!” laughs Connolly. “But it turned out that I really like doing this; I can honestly say the most rewarding things are the friendships I’ve made here both in feathered and human form.” Connolly is now the education coordinator, which means that she and her team run all of the programs for pre-k to college-aged students. She also designs summer reading programs and leads visits for daycares, senior centers and schools: “It’s an absolute privilege to get to work every day in this place with these amazing birds and share the park’s mission.”

Beyond the International Aviary, guests can explore six other equally grand aviaries dedicated to birds found in Africa, Australia, Europe, Asia, North America and South America. Over a dozen smaller aviaries, such as the Wings of the Tropics, Birds of Paradise and Endangered, group birds that share a common trait or region.

The Toco Toucan is housed in the Wings of the Tropics aviary at Sylvan Heights Bird Park.

Winding trails lined with shady trees connect each enclosure. Benches and picnic tables allow for plenty of opportunities to relax, observe and ponder. Visitors can walk inside many of the aviaries, which feature water ponds, trees, shrubs and other foliage preferred by the birds. (Barely visible netting keeps out aerial predators like hawks and owls.) It is not unusual to come in very close proximity to the birds, who at once feel completely occupied in their natural habitat but also curious about their visiting humans.

Inside the North American Aviary, for example, a Nene — a goose with a black-and-white-striped neck — comfortably hangs out within the reach of visitors, unbothered by a noisy Trumpeter Swan nearby.

“The Nene were almost extinct in the early part of the last century with only a few dozen remaining,” says Lubbock. “Endemic to the Hawaiian islands, their near-demise was due to the eradication of habitat as well as non-native predators.” A captive breeding program was introduced to collect wild Nene eggs to incubate and raise the geese to reintroduce them to their habitat. In collaboration with other programs to prevent habitat loss and non-native predator management, Mike Lubbock and other aviculturists’ efforts over the last 50 years finally paid off, and in 2019 the Nene were downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened.”

“This is a really good example of people working together with captive breeding and conservation of wild habitats to bring back a species that almost disappeared,” says Lubbock.
On a walk through the aviaries, visitors observe the birds busy in various tasks like eating, building nests, playing, swimming and napping.

The Whooper swans are protective of their brood.

The tour ends at the Landing Zone, a crowd-favorite area where they can purchase bird seed to feed parakeets, flamingos and other birds. Flamingo beaks tickle children’s outstretched palms, and colorful and noisy parakeets blithely perch on guests’ heads, shoulders and hands. (Though they can get overfed, laughs Lubbock, “on some days they want nothing more to do with food by 2 p.m.!”)
Thanks to the mostly mild weather here, the park is open year-round.

The front porch of the Visitor Center

“There is something different to see every season,” says Lubbock. In spring, birds are nesting and laying eggs. Summers may be hot and humid, but the African Grey Parrots and macaws don’t mind the influx of school-age visitors over break. In the fall, the cooling weather and the change in foliage make the park an appealing destination, and many waterfowl species molt out of the previous year’s plumage and grow new feathers. Winter is the quietest time of the year, which makes it a favorite for photographers.

The park also includes a small cafe and a playground as well as daily chats with staffers to learn about birds’ diets, care and habitats.

The Landing Zone allows visitors to interact with hundreds of parakeets. 

A Wetland Safari Trail follows the edge of the park campus, where guests might spot some of North Carolina’s wild animals, like turtles, beavers and lizards. The park is also working to reclaim some of the agricultural land surrounding the bird park to plant native pollinator plants, remove invasive plant species and restore the local habitat. “This benefits not only native species, but also wild birds that migrate to our wetlands,” says Lubbock. “Because while our Blue Jays and Chickadees may not seem remarkable to us, they’re just as important to our environment as these exotic birds are to theirs.”  

This article originally appeared in the August 2024 issue of WALTER magazine.