Originally opened in 1948 as Crandon Park on an island on Key Biscayne, Zoo Miami moved to its current location in 1980. The zoo is spread out over 740 acres with only 300 acres developed. The zoo is located at the former location of the Richmond Naval Air Station.

Zoo Miami
Miami, FL
Nov 2018

Native Australians once said that masked lapwings carried a spear (alas, not seen in this image). Masked lapwings, also called spur-winged plovers, have sharp yellow spurs on the "elbow" of their wings. They use these spurs to scare predators by flying directly at them, but they rarely ever use the spurs for anything other than looks. Lapwings swoop at their predators more often when defending their nests. They also pretend to have broken wings to lure predators away from their chicks.

Masked Lapwing by Paul Sager, on Flickr
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7918/31753567197_0bcc136123_h.jpg

Wings of Asia features 300 rare birds of 70 species in a temperate mixed forest and highlights the evolutionary connection of birds to dinosaurs

The white-winged wood duck inhabits stagnant or slow-flowing natural and artificial wetlands, within or adjacent to evergreen, moist, deciduous or swamp forests, from north-east India and Bangladesh, through South East Asia to Java and Sumatra.

White-winged Wood Duck
https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7850/31753568707_06740c1fa8_h.jpg

In 1992, the zoo suffered extensive damage when Hurricane Andrew made landfall in South Florida on August 24. The category 5 hurricane toppled over 5,000 trees and destroyed the Wings of Asia aviary which had been built to withstand winds of up to 120 miles per hour. Although the majority of zoo animals remained outside during the storm, losses were minimal except for the aviary, that lost nearly 100 of the 300 resident birds.

The black-collared starling is a species of starling found in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam. Its natural habitat is subtropical or tropical dry forests.

Black-collared Starling
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4894/45970477464_68702823d1_h.jpg

The chestnut-breasted malkoha is a species of cuckoo found in Southeast Asia from Myanmar to eastern Java, through the Philippines and Borneo. Little sexual dimorphism is seen, as the male and female are similar in plumage, although the male has a pale blue iris and the female yellow.

Chestnut-breasted Malkoha
https://farm5.staticflickr.com/4892/46642289792_e494b466c6_h.jpg

These images are sized to fill your wide-screen display. Try using <F11> to maximize your browser window for the full effect. If the images overshoot your display, such as a laptop, just click on the image or the URL link and they'll resize to your screen from the host Flickr site. You can click a bit further into the image details on the Flickr page, if desired. EXIF data is available from the host Flickr pages as well. On the Flickr site, use your <L>key for Large and the <F11> for the full-screen.

If the images are not filling your widescreen display due to recent UHH changes, follow this link and update your UHH profile: https://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-572300-1.html