The bird park in the heart of the city : PQ Exotic Bird Park, Kochi

An interactive bird park where all age group can enjoy the beauty of winged wildlife up close.

In the heart of Kochi city, where one would least expect it, lies PQ Exotic Bird Park. You would surely need the help of any online map to help you get there. It is situated near Varapuzha bridge at Kochi. I had heard about this place from a couple of my friends and decided to take my little Zavi for a quick visit. He was as usual all excited when I mentioned to him on a Sunday afternoon, that we shall visit a small bird park.

PQ Exotic bird park

We put ‘PQ Exotic Bird Park’ in Google map and started our journey. As we approached Varapuzha bridge, the map told us to take a right, but we missed it as the way was not really cleared. We stopped by the road side, I checked the map once again and decided to turn back and voila we were at the entrance of PQ Exotic World Park. There were a few people at the entrance waiting in a small queue for the tickets. At the the counter, they had also displayed Do’s and Don’ts once inside. What caught me attention was that it was clearly written that we should not scream, lest we should scare away the birds and also we were to take care of our belongings like chain and watch. I wondered why, because the place wasn’t very crowded for someone to steal from us or anything. The entrance fee was Rs 150 from adults and Rs 50 for our 6 years old, Zavi. There was no extra charge for using camera inside.

We waited a bit and then we were allowed inside. First we were asked to wash our hands well with soap. Then we were each given a plate with tiny pieces of watermelon. I was a bit confused as I had expected to see the birds closed in cages like in zoos. But here it was different, we walk into the enclosure of the birds and we can feed them. The first section had beautifully colourful Lorikeets. They hopped onto the plates and happily had the watermelon pieces. We can actually see them really close by and marvel at the wonderful colour combination icon their feathers. The setting was airy with a lot of space for the birds to fly around and with branches set strategically so that visitors can see the birds well. Apart from the colourful parrots, there were red coloured red parrots too, which I think is the Eclectus parrot. We even spotted one or two cockatoo and cockatiel here. But the cockatoo and cockatiel did not come very close by. As our plates became empty, we handed it over to the staff, and we proceeded to the next section. One we reach the end of each section, the staff has to let us into the next. Next we went into a space filled with green cheeked Conures and Sun Conures. This time we entered this place with some seeds and some grains in our plates. The Conures seemed pretty hungry since it was lunch time. Zavi and Laya had four to five of them pecking at their plates. One of them even went and sat on Zavi’s shoulder and he was giggling away. He found the bird pecking on his neck very ticklish. One of the Conures even sat on my shoulder and that is when I under the true meaning of the warming written outside to be careful of our belongings. The bird was totally pecking at my chain and finally I had to call for help. Since the birds started appearing near us in large numbers, we slowly handed over the plates to the staff and carried on forward. We went on saw many pastel coloured budgerigars and some grey coloured birds too. The birds were flying all around us and it was such a joy to watch them. In the next section, feeding was not allowed as they had larger exotic birds here like the red Macau, the blue Macau and even a grey coloured one. These birds seemed a bit shy or tired, I don’t know, but they refused to come closer.

The last section at PQ Exotic Bird Park, has nothing to do with birds. As we were going to enter this area, we saw a medium size cage with tiny white mice inside. I excitedly took some pictures of these mice and that is when the staff informed me that the mice was actually not kept on display and it was food for the pythons kept in the next section. Here one can pay Rs 100 at the ticket counter and take photos holding the python. We did not dare do that. We entered and the family who had just entered before us was holding the python and taking pictures. I found it a bit repulsive as I am not really a snake person. Zavi was very intrigued of the snakes and looked closely at them. I know he really wanted to hold the snake, but I did not even ask him if he wanted to. So this was the end of PQ Exotic bird park. There is a small food cart set up at the exit where we can have some snacks and drink.

We really enjoyed our experience at the bird park, although I felt that they could keep some boards with the names of the birds. We had spend around 45 minutes inside and we totally had fun interacting with the birds. Also I must say that, the bird park is pretty well maintained as there was no repulsive smell inside. I would recommend this place for a very quick gateway with small children.

EXOTIC BIRD PARK OPEN IN KOCHI NOW

Location: PQ Exotic Bird Park 

Address: Blue Bazar Shopping Village, NH 66, near Varapuzha Bridge, Cheranallur, Ernakulam, Kerala 682034

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Rahul Devakumar

Creative Media Studio

We take photos as a return ticket to a moment otherwise gone.