I went to the Bronx Zoo, woooo!

Every time I’ve visited the Bronx Zoo, it was for a school trip or a work event. Even though I grew up in Washington Heights, I’ve never gone there on my own. Sunday’s trip reminded me of that, but I was still happily charmed by the bird exhibits and what looked like gossiping giraffes, later joined by a wandering ostrich.

I share these photos just because I think they look cool.

As someone living with two parrots, or my feather babies, as I like to call them, I naturally gravitated toward the birds section.

I vaguely recall a story about African Grey parrots being separated because they were swearing and mocking the public.

So I walked towards the African Grey section at the World of Birds exhibit and only saw one African Grey and wondered if this parrot had been kept from their friends for similar offenses.

But perhaps my favorite moment was interacting with the Maleo bird. This sassy gray, rare and endangered bird was skittish but kept popping in and out of view, to the amusement of the crowd. I began to notice a pattern: the bird would dart out, catch people’s attention, then run out of sight the moment they pulled out their phones, prompting many to move on, but I remained and began calling over the bird. The bird began playing a game I called “look at me, don’t look at me,” darting in and out of view as people laughed and began interacting with it.

As noted on the exhibit sign below it, maleos are famous for their unique reproductive behavior: instead of sitting on their eggs to incubate them, they bury them deep in sand warmed by solar heat or volcanic geothermal activity, and the chicks emerge fully independent.

I capped the trip with a trolley tour around parts of the Bronx Zoo. Spent some time with the giraffes, walked towards the Bisons, and chanted “Let’s go Buffalo!” to the amusement of no one.