World Bird Sanctuary - A Unique St. Louis Attraction

World Bird Sanctuary is located on 305 acres in St. Louis County and features outdoor animal exhibits, static collections indoors, a wildlife hospital, reading room and activity center, and hiking trails and picnic pavilions.

Open to the public year round, the WBS center has:

·      Over 50 outdoor exhibits featuring live hawks, eagles, owls, falcons, pelicans and a condor.  Be sure to stop by and play hide and seek with Dorothy – an Andean Condor with a 12 foot wingspan that manages to hide behind a 1ft high tree stump in her enclosure!

Meet Dorothy, the Andean Condor

·      Feed the chickens and turkeys on display.

Young guests love to feed the chickens and turkeys

·      A visitor's information center with interpretive exhibits and live eagles, owls and hawks on display.

Hear the stories of how some of our birds came to reside at WBS

·      A state of the art wildlife hospital with a patient-viewing window where you can see some of the 400 patients that the wildlife hospital treats within a single year. 

·      A nature center with indoor and outdoor exhibits, including mammals, reptiles, raptors and parrots.

Meet some of the residents of our Nature Center

·      A 300 seat outdoor amphitheater with many free public environmental education programs throughout the year.  Check the online calendar to see what's coming up. 

Enjoy the entertaining presentations in our amphitheater

·      With over 9 miles of hiking trails, rated from easy to difficult, you can go for a short hike and visit our bird feeding stations; meet some of the pelicans, bald eagles, ravens, falcons, vultures, hawks, owls and parrots that call World Bird Sanctuary home.

·      Picnic pavilions situated near bird feeders where you can enjoy watching squirrels, chipmunks and songbirds going about their day.

Take advatage of our "Bird Brain" Reading Room

·      Enjoy the free "Bird Brain" Reading Room and Activity Center situated among the outdoor exhibits.  Open on Sundays from 11am to 3pm, you can pick up free books about birds, nature and conservation, or even a free poster of a bald eagle or great-horned owl.

Join us for our newest weekend event--our free Keeper Talks

·      Learn about the birds at World Bird Sanctuary at free Keeper Talks every Saturday and Sunday at 9am – follow the keepers as they feed the birds and explain how they came to be at World Bird Sanctuary.

Admission:

·      Hours: 8am – 5pm, Monday through Sunday.

·      Closed: Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and closed at noon on Christmas Eve.

·      Admission and Parking is FREE!  Donations are gladly accepted – donation boxes are situated throughout the site.

Our newly paved trails make for easy walking

Amenities:

·      Handicapped accessibility trails and paved exhibit trails

·      No pets allowed. 

·      Public restrooms.

·      Water fountains.

·      Soda, water and snack sales.

·      Gift shop.

Submitted by Catherine Redfern, World Bird Sanctuary Naturalist/Fundraiser