The Parc des Oiseaux ( en, Park of Birds) is a

zoological park A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility in which animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zool ...

located in

Villars-les-Dombes Villars-les-Dombes (, literally ''Villars near Dombes'') is a commune in the Ain department in eastern France. Its people are known as ''Villardois''. Geography The town is located within Ain, half-way between Lyon (33 km) and Bourg-en-B ...

in the

department Department may refer to: * Departmentalization, division of a larger organization into parts with specific responsibility Government and military *Department (administrative division), a geographical and administrative division within a country, ...

Ain Ain (, ; frp, En) is a department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region in Eastern France. Named after the Ain river, it is bordered by the Saône and Rhône rivers. Ain is located on the country's eastern edge, on the Swiss border, where ...

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

. The site is recorded in the and was opened in 1970. It is one of the oldest ornithological parks in France and brings together a collection of more than 3,000 birds from around the world in a reserve located in the heart of the

Dombes The Dombes (; Arpitan: Domba) is an area in eastern France, once an independent municipality, formerly part of the province of Burgundy, and now a district comprised in the department of Ain, and bounded on the west by the Saône River, on the s ...

. The section opened to the public covers an area of within the reserve and welcomes on average 250,000 visitors per year. The park is a member of the

European Association of Zoos and Aquaria The European Association of Zoos and Aquaria (EAZA), is an organisation for the European zoo and aquarium community that links over 340 member organisations in 41 countries. EAZA membership is open to all zoos and aquaria across Europe that compl ...

and the , it participated in fifteen European breeding programmes for the protection and reintroduction of endangered species.

Operation of the park

Three hundred bird species are represented at the Parc des Oiseaux. These represent a collection of 3,000 birds from all continents.

References

{{Authority control Aviaries