Aviary visitors given parrot poo protection hats
Wednesday, September 22, 2010 at 11:29
City Parrots in Fun, Trichoglosus haematodus - Rainbow Lorikeets

Theme park bosses have been forced to start offering visitors weird-looking umbrella hats -- to stop birds from pooing on them.

Zoo keepers at Chessington World of Adventure say they noticed many visitors to their walk-through aviary were ending up with poop on their head.

And while it's meant to be considered lucky, few guests agreed and many were even being put off visiting by the prospect of being pelted by parrot poo.

As they couldn't stop the 65 brightly plumed parrots - which are constantly being fed by visitors - from doing their business, they decided to shield the visitor.

Now everyone is offered one of the stylish umbrella hats to wear as they make their way around… we just wish they had a bullseye on the top.
Charlie Compton, Head of Birds at the theme-park commented: "The 65 brightly plumed parrots in our Lorikeet Lagoon are popular with visitors who can feed the birds from small pots of nectar.

"Feeding the birds inevitably means there will be bird poo and the number of ‘lucky’ people with lorikeet poo on their heads meant we had to take action.

"The umbrella hats are the perfect solution and guests are free to borrow them when walking through the aviary."

Article originally appeared on (http://cityparrots.org/).
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