Happy Birthday Sugar!

The National Aquarium is celebrating a very special birthday today: Sugar, our umbrella cockatoo, is turning 15!

Sugar’s favorite enrichment activity is tearing up shredded newspaper. He also loves sharpening his beak on wood blocks!

Don’t forget Sugar’s favorite treats – peanuts and coconut!

Yum yum yum!

When Sugar gets excited (often by the sight of peanuts or coconut!) he raises his crest of feathers to communicate that to our staff and guests!

Sugar is one the animals you can see at our daily Animal Encounters and you can often see him in the Overlook!

Sugar LOVES to play in and with tubes!

Cardboard, PVC pipe, you name it – Basically, he loves anything he can look through!

Anyone in there?

Stop by National Aquarium, Baltimore today and you might see Sugar during one of our Animal Encounters! 

An Easy DIY Thanksgiving Craft for the Kids (or the Birds)!

We like to theme our animal enrichments around the holidays A LOT. Not only is it a fun side project for our staff, but also gives us the opportunity to re-purpose and recycle materials that otherwise would have been discarded.

Sugar showing off her cardboard turkey!

One of our favorite materials to use for these enrichment items is cardboard! This year, we decided to make some special cardboard turkeys for our birds to play with. If not being used by birds to sharpen their beaks, these turkeys also make for some festive decorations!

Margaret went right into destruction mode. She can’t resist chomping on those wooden beads!

But these playful turkeys aren’t just for our birds – they are an easy do-it-yourself project for anyone looking for some Thanksgiving craft fun! Follow the instructions below to make your own!

Cardboard Turkey

Materials:

• Cardboard cut into wedges, we used two per turkey
• Popsicle sticks, if you are purchasing these we suggest going for the colored variety
• Wooden beads
• Scissors
• Zip ties
• Permanent marker

Directions:

1. Cut the corners of your cardboard into wedge pieces, varying in size (we kept ours between 3 and 6 inches wide)
   
2. Using your scissors, carefully poke a small hold in the center of each wedge
3. Stick your popsicle sticks in the slits of the cardboard, leaving little space in between each stick
   
4. Once your wedges have their “feathers”, use the zip tie to connect the beads and wedges to make the shape of a turkey
   
5. Use your permanent marker to draw eyes on your turkey!

We hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving! Have a favorite Thanksgiving-themed craft? Tell us in the comments!

Orioles Magic: Our Birds Support The Birds!

Our National Aquarium birds (and reptiles) are proud that our hometown team, the Baltimore Orioles, are headed to the playoffs! They couldn’t help but break into song…

From all of us at the National Aquarium, Go O’s!

Happy Birthday Margaret!

The National Aquarium is celebrating a very special birthday today: Margaret, our blue hyacinth macaw, is turning 24!

Hyacinth macaws are one of the largest species of parrot. They are beautiful, smart, and can even mimic human speech. Margaret can say one word – “Hello” (and she says it a lot)!

Hello!

Macaws have four toes—two toes face forward and two face backward. These feet are called zygodactyl, and are great for perching on branches, climbing in trees, holding food and even playing with toys. Margaret’s favorite toys are actually old phone books! She hold them and tears out the pages one by one with her feet and beak.

Although Margaret is a BLUE hyacinth macaw, did you know that her feathers are actually a shade of grey? Light reflects off the top feathers in such a way that they appear bright blue. This is typical of most blue-colored birds. Her feathers are so sensitive to light, that she appears greenish when she’s wet!

Blue hyacinth macaw feathers from different angles appear to be different colors

Macaws eat primarily nuts from native palms, such as acuri and bocaiuva palms, but they also eat fruits and vegetables. Their beaks are strong enough to crack open coconuts. Fresh coconut is Margaret’s favorite treat!

Margaret is getting some very special presents for her birthday today (hint: it rhymes with shmoconut!)

Say happy birthday to Margaret and watch her open presents this afternoon at our 2:30pm Animal Encounter! 

Animal Update – September 21

Between our Baltimore and Washington, DC, venues, more than 17,500 animals representing 900 species call the National Aquarium home. There are constant changes, additions, and more going on behind the scenes that our guests may not notice during their visit. We want to share these fun updates with our community so we’re bringing them to you in our weekly Animal Update posts!

Check our blog every Friday to find out what’s going on… here’s what’s new this week!

Green wing doves in Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes

We’ve introduced green wing doves to our Animal Planet Australia: Wild Extremes exhibit this week.

Our green wing dove and her chicks!

 Our dove has imprinted on humans and so she is much friendlier and less easily spooked than the rest of our dove population. They can easily be seen roaming our exhibit!

Be sure to check back every Friday to find out what’s happening!