![\"BirdShowOwl\"](\"https:\/\/sduptownnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/BirdShowOwl.jpg\" "\\"BirdShowOwl\\"")
<\/a>The first thing animal trainers focus on to get birds ready for a big outdoor show is their exit.\nThat way, the finish is what they remember the most clearly.
\nThat way, it is the move the birds do most instinctively.
\nThat way, no matter what happens during the show, the bird can always get back home.<\/p>\n
But a week and a half before \u201cSoar \u2013 A Symphony in Flight\u201d was to open at the San Diego Zoo, Lloyd, a 4-year-old Hadada Ibis, wasn\u2019t getting it during rehearsal. The football-sized bird with a long, black, curved beak flew from his exit point, a tree limb at the edge of the Hunte Amphitheater, into the seats. And just stayed there.<\/p>\n
\u201cLloyd, Lloyd,\u201d called Cari Clements, the director of interpretive programs for Natural Encounters Inc., which is presenting the show. The bird ignored her.
\n Clements walked to where Lloyd was sunning himself and helped him find his way back. When he was released again, he circled. And circled. But he didn\u2019t find his exit. <\/p>\n
A few days before the show was to open practice, positive reinforcement and patience paid off. (OK, I said a few prayers too, but I know they would have pulled it together without me.) Lloyd wasn\u2019t only making his exit \u2013 he and about 50 other birds in the show were getting down their entrances too.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoar \u2013 A Symphony in Flight\u201d is the spectacular new nighttime show that opened June 27 at the San Diego Zoo. Birds of every size, shape and color turn the amphitheater into a production with Las Vegas-style lights, staging and sound.<\/p>\n
The show opens with Quito, a double yellow-headed Amazon parrot singing “Old MacDonald Had a Farm.” It continues with a story of how destruction can be healed with conservation efforts.<\/p>\n
The goal of the production was \u201csomething bigger and better than anything done before,\u201d said Steve Martin, the president of Natural Encounters Inc. Among the people on the creative design team were Doriana Sanchez, a choreographer on the reality television show \u201cSo You Think You Can Dance,\u201d and Jeremy Railton, who has designed sets for Cher, Kiss and the opening ceremony of the 2002 Winter Olympics in Utah. They and Tony Huston \u2013 a screenwriter from the famous family of Anjelica and John Huston \u2013 also helped with the new daytime bird show at the Zoo, \u201cTake Flight \u2013 An Avian Adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n
Given all that human talent involved, you\u2019d be forgiven for thinking the birds look like rock stars.<\/p>\n
Martin started his animal training career at the San Diego Zoo\u2019s Wild Animal Park in 1976. He left in 1980 and began his own company, now located in Winter Haven, Fla. Natural Encounters has 40 employees and more than 400 birds. Martin has worked at more than 70 zoos and aquariums in 17 countries as an animal behavior consultant. This is his first show back at the San Diego Zoo.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wanted something beyond the imagination,\u201d Martin said. \u201cIf you could imagine it, it wasn\u2019t enough.\u201d<\/p>\n
And he wanted the birds, not people, to tell the story. Birds bigger than 6-year-olds. Birds more colorful than the neon lights on Broadway. Birds that most people have never seen before.
\n That brings us back to Lloyd, the Ibis. Clements, the Natural Encounters trainer, didn\u2019t worry when Lloyd failed to make his quick turn-around to the exit. She knew he would come back.
\n \u201cThe biggest challenge is they are free-flying birds,\u201d Clements said. \u201cThey have a choice. Nothing keeps them here except our relationship.\u201d<\/p>\n
All these years, they\u2019ve never had a bird fail to return.<\/p>\n
\u201cSoar \u2013 A Symphony in Flight\u201d is free with San Diego Zoo admission.<\/p>\n
Dani Dodge es un ex reportero y editor de un peri\u00f3dico que ahora trabaja en el Zool\u00f3gico de San Diego. Puede comunicarse con ella en ddodge@sandiegozoo.org. Llame al Zool\u00f3gico de San Diego al (619) 231-1515.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Roar, Rumble and Snort: San Diego Zoo Stories By Dani Dodge The first thing animal trainers focus on to get birds ready for a big outdoor show is their exit. That way, the finish is what they remember the most clearly. That way, it is the move the birds do most instinctively. That way, no […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":242755,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11555","_seopress_titles_title":"\u201cSoar \u2013 A Symphony in Flight\u201d: Open at the San Diego Zoo","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11551,11555],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-242754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-uptown-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242754"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242754\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242755"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}