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

Looking For A Budget Friendly Summer Activity?

Include a visit to World Bird Sanctuary in your  summer plans for something educational, entertaining, fun and free!  Get the kids out of the house and into nature and the outdoors. 

 Look for our entrance--on the right--just before Lone Elk Park

World Bird Sanctuary offers outdoor and indoor exhibits that include birds of prey (eagles, owls, vultures, hawks, falcons, etc.), parrots, mammals, reptiles and more.

Check out the interactive displays at our Environmental Education Center.  Visit our 15’ Burmese Python and our 9-banded Armadillo at the Nature Center. Visit Dorothy, our juvenile Andean Condor, on our exhibit line.  Also on the exhibit line, bring some quarters and feed some of the  most unusual chickens you will ever see.  Peek in on some of our patients through the viewing window at our Wildlife Hospital.   

You can see most everything in just a few hours, or pack a picnic lunch and spend the whole day.  WBS is open daily from 8 am – 5 pm, 363 days of the year (except for special/private events and occasional bad weather closures).  There are several picnic tables and a few pavilions available on a first come – first serve basis.

Need to burn off some excess energy?   Take the family on a hike on one of our trails.  For a short hike, try the Hickory Trail or Turtle Bob’s Trail.  If you want a serious workout, take to the Chubb Trail (14 miles round trip).  The Chubb Trail Head is located just 200 yards past the WBS entrance, as well as parking for the trail.

 Be sure to catch one of our free weekend Animal Encounters

Make sure to catch one of our Free Animal Encounters shows (every weekend, Memorial Day through Labor Day).  Animal Encounter times on Saturday are 11:30 am and 2:00 pm, and on Sunday there will be a show at 1:30 pm.  All shows are held in our Amphitheater, located just outside of our Nature Center.  No two shows are alike.

Want to make your visit even more educational?  Purchase a Bird Bundle in our Raptique Gift Shop, located in our Nature Center.  Bird Bundles can be purchased for $5 each and are available in two levels.  Level I is for K – 2^nd grades and Level II is geared for grades 3 on up.  Bird Bundles include activities that can be completed during your visit.

Looking to keep idle minds occupied this summer?  Check out our Resource Nest Boxes.  These boxes are available in four different topics and are filled full of hours of educational entertainment.  They can be rented for a two-week time period for a fee of $25, subject to availability. Topics include: Protect Our Planet, Rocks Rock, Talon Tote and Where We Live.  See our website for more information.

 Join us for our free Birds in Concert performances every Thursday in August

Be sure to check out our online calendar for upcoming events such as Birds In Concert which is a FREE CONCERT held every Thursday in August at 7 pm.  These concerts feature a different guest musician or group each week, as well as our own in-house band, The Raptor Project.

When you are ready to depart World Bird Sanctuary, you might want to visit our neighbors at Lone Elk Park.  This drive-through park features Elk, Bison and Deer.

There’s plenty going on this summer at World Bird Sanctuary to ward off boredom and to answer the age-old question, “What are we doing tomorrow?”  Hope to see you soon!

Submitted by Billie Baumann, World Bird Sanctuary Outreach Coordinator