The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is one of the city’s most widely advertised attractions and if you’re wondering if it’s an ethical place to visit or a tourist trap, this post is for you. You almost forget that KL also has a real zoo when all you see are flyers and billboards for the “World’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary”.
I tend to avoid tourist attractions that involve animals. I have yet to see one that actually treats animals humanely and is educational at the same time. In my opinion, animals should simply not be kept in captivity, especially not to generate a profit.
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is definitely not the worst zoo I have ever seen. Unfortunately, South East Asia does not have the best reputation in terms of animal treatment, so this park might be considered acceptable compared to others I have seen, especially those keeping birds.
Should you go there?
No.
Although my reasons why you should not visit this park are mostly related to the treatment of animals there are others as well. Let’s start from the beginning.
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Why it’s not ethical to visit the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park in my opinion
I’ve travelled quite a lot over the years and was even fortunate enough to live and work in KL for quite some time. I always try to avoid animal attractions as much as possible and when I do visit them (like the KL Bird Park), I try to write an honest review on whether it’s an ethical destination or not.
Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinions, and you might still have an enjoyable time here. For me, animals come first and their purpose is not to entertain humans. KL is such a beautiful city with so many fun things to do, so there is no need to go to the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park, which is not worth visiting in my opinion.
Where is the Bird Park in Kuala Lumpur?
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is part of Lake Gardens, which is a large park complex with many attractions such as the botanical gardens, the butterfly park, the National Planetarium and more. Lake Gardens (or sometimes simply referred to as Perdana Botanical Gardens) is located a 25-minute car ride from the centre of KL, depending on where you’re staying.
It is somewhat tricky to reach with public transport. Although there are some buses, I would recommend going to KL Sentral Station and then taking a Grab, which only costs around RM 5 (~ €1.10). I think this is the most convenient transport method if you do decide to visit the park.

The world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary
On the way to the park, there are many signs proudly advertising it as the “World’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary”.
So there I was debating on whether I should visit this park. As I mention I usually try to avoid zoos at all cost. But then I looked back at the enticing sign and thought, well a free-flight aviary can’t be that bad. And especially if it’s the world’s largest one.
That must technically mean that these should be the world’s happiest captive birds, right? And if I only visit one bird park it should be this one because it gives its animals the most room to fly.
UPDATE
It seems like several places around the world are claiming to be the world’s largest free-flight walk-in aviary. As far as I can tell from my research, the award-winning and far more ethical Birds of Eden Sanctuary in Plettenberg Bay, South Africa is actually the largest, not the controversial Kuala Lumpur Bird Park.
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Of course, another reason I went was that I could write about my experience in hindsight. I had tried to research the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park online beforehand, but my search came up pretty inconclusive. The Trip Advisor reviews were either extremely bad or extremely good. There was no real in-between.
Still, the overall rating was four stars, which confused me. In hindsight, I found the one-star reviews to be the most accurate, so if you want a second opinion, definitely make sure to check them out.
So let me tell you about my personal experience at the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park. Despite my obvious bias towards zoos, I did not find it all bad (although it was pretty close).
Let’s begin with what I thought was unacceptable.

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Why you shouldn’t visit the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park
There are several reasons why, in my opinion, you shouldn’t visit the Bird Park in Kuala Lumpur, ranging from the ticket price and the mistreatment of the animals to the general experience.
KL Bird Park ticket price
I was shocked to see how expensive a ticket to the park is. Tourist attractions in Kuala Lumpur tend to be fairly cheap, and some are even free such as the Batu Caves.
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park costs RM85 (~ €17) for foreign adults and RM 60 (~ €12) for children under 11 years old. Malaysian nationals receive a discounted price of RM35 (~ 7€).
Although the park is large, RM85 cannot be justified as an entry price, in my opinion. By paying so much money to get in, I had very high expectations of the interior and ended up being disappointed. This just made me feel as though I was entering a typical tourist trap where the prices are high, and there is no real value being delivered.
I would have been fine with paying RM85 or even more if I could have seen evidence of actual efforts being made to create habitable environments for the birds in the park.
Unfortunately, this was not the case, and I could not really tell where all the money was going as the park was not as well-kept as I had hoped.
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General condition of the bird park in KL
The conditions in Kuala Lumpur Bird Park were not at an acceptable standard. The large netting had a lot of holes, and I saw multiple escaped birds while I was there.
There seemed to be no effort from the employees to fix the holes or recapture the birds.


The bad smell of the bird park
The entire place smelled very bad. This is, of course, not surprising considering there are more than 3,000 birds crammed into cages in a small area.
I can not imagine how anyone could enjoy their stay in this park when the smell was so overwhelming. The pond area, as well as the parrot aviaries, were especially bad. I could not spend more than a few minutes here.

Trash in the bird exhibits
What bothered me the most was how badly the grounds were kept. I was appalled to see plastic bottles, chips packets and soda cans throughout the park. Now, this is, of course, not the park’s fault but needs to be blamed on the visitors. However, all the plastic I saw was old and had to have been sitting there for at least a few months, if not more.
Look at the picture below and tell me that soda can has not been around for a while. So what I do not understand is why the waste isn’t picked up regularly.
One of the items I saw was this large container of dishwashing liquid (you can see it on the cover photo for this article) that obviously did not come from a visitor but had to have come from the park itself. How it ended up in the bird exhibit and why no one had removed it, I do not understand.
In one of the aviaries, there were puddles with what seemed to be motor oil.




Dirty bird cages
I do not have to mention the bird excrement that was everywhere in the aviaries. Of course, this is unavoidable if you are keeping birds in captivity, but there was just so much of it.
There were just far too many birds in one place.

The treatment of the birds at the KL Bird Park
In some way, all the other reasons why you should not visit Kuala Lumpur Bird Park add up to this one. The treatment of the birds in Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is unacceptable, in my opinion, especially considering the park markets itself as an eco-tourism destination. Here are some examples.


Does the KL Bird Park really have a free-flight aviary?
I visited this bird park because the promise of a free-flight aviary sounded more humane than birds being kept in cages.
Although the aviary (at least the first one) was very large I was disappointed to see that most of the birds were exhibited in smaller cages or aviaries within the large aviary.
The emu and ostrich exhibit was especially depressing. These are birds made for running, and keeping them in a tiny fenced-in area was heartbreaking to see.
The cassowary was lying in the dirt in a corner of its cage. Just like the hornbill, it was alone without any contact with other birds.



The KL Bird Park is overcrowded
There were so many birds in the main aviary that it was hard not to trip over one. Birds were perched on nearly every tree available, including the large iron poles holding up the nets.
I think I have never seen so many in one place.
I was shocked to see storks of different varieties being the most common bird in this area. Storks are long-distance migratory birds. They should not be kept in an aviary that barely allows them to fly at all since the netting is very low and the trees obstruct any clear flight paths.
In the round aviary at the back of the park, there was a single stork who kept flying in circles even though he continued to bump into the netting. It was a horribly sad thing to see.


Birds in cages at the KL Bird Park
The worst parts of the park were the many caged birds. Although the aviaries were not an ideal habitat, at least the birds had some sort of freedom and the ability to move around and fly short distances. The birds in cages were not so fortunate.
I would estimate that about half the birds in the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park were kept in cages either within the large aviaries or in a separate, open-air area. Most of them were small, approximately 3 x 3-metre cages with a bare tree in the middle and not much else.
These bird exhibits were sad and smelled very bad. The birds were usually perched at the top of the cage to get some shelter from the sun. By far, the worst exhibit of the entire park was the eagle aviary (if you can even call it that).
Around fifteen of these beautiful birds were kept in an extremely small enclosure. One of them was repeatedly fluttering into the netting.
Keeping birds such as peacocks, swans and other waterbirds in enclosures is questionable enough, but an eagle that is made for hunting and flying fast is not meant to live in a cage, especially not in large numbers. I can understand people visiting the aviary and thinking the birds are living a decent life here, but how anyone can look at the eagle exhibit and think that is okay is beyond me.


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The KL Bird Park clips the wings of its birds
Unfortunately, it gets worse.
Next to the eagles was the owl exhibit, which was just as heartbreaking. These birds were not caged but sitting in a sort of wall on various branches and perches. They were not chained, which usually means their wings are clipped to keep them from flying away.
Wing-clipping is not an uncommon practice among birdkeepers, mostly to keep the bird from injuring itself or escaping when kept in a private home. I find it a questionable practice in general, but that is beside the point.
The owls were sitting in broad daylight, trying to sleep in the sun, while visitors were trying to get their attention by making loud noises. It was a bizarre sight, and I do not understand how anyone could enjoy this.
A similar exhibit also exists for parrots where tourists can take photos with them for a fee of RM 15 (~ €3.30). At least they are not nocturnal.


Bad behaviour of tourists at the KL Bird Park and the lack of staff
When I visited I immediately noticed the lack of staff present throughout the park. Although there were signs telling visitors to keep their distance from the birds and not touch or startle them, few people actually followed these rules.
The downside of having a walk-in aviary is that everyone can just approach and harass the birds freely. Many people will do anything to get the perfect photo. I saw people clap loudly to get a bird’s attention, I saw birds being chased, people sticking their hands in cages, and people feeding birds with the fish food that is sold throughout the park.
The list goes on. Many visitors blatantly ignored the clearly marked walkways and decided to wander into the nesting areas. No wonder most of the birds in the park are perched on trees as far up as possible.
I saw only one member of staff during my visit to the bird park. Only at the bird show they had five employees present for no apparent reason. Considering the fact that they charge RM85 as an entrance fee for the Bird Park in KL, I would expect there to be more employees available to enforce the park rules and protect the birds.


Past controversies surrounding the KL Bird Park
Through a bit of research, I discovered that the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park has been subject to criticism and controversy in the past. Since its opening in 1991, there have been numerous complaints and investigations into its treatment of animals. There used to be more types of animals in the park, not just birds.
In her book “Speaking up for Animals” the American author Lisa Kemmerer recounts orang-utans being forced to perform in shows and physically punished if they misbehaved in 2005. The incident was reported to the Wildlife Department of the Office of Trade Record Analysis for Flora and Fauna in Commerce, and it was discovered that the orangutans were smuggled illegally from Indonesia, which forced the park to discontinue its monkey exhibits. The book is available on Amazon.
In 2016, visitors of the park started a petition to conduct veterinary health checks on all birds and initiate a general cleaning. This was after visitors noticed ticks on many birds as well as missing feathers and unnatural behaviour. The main initiator of the petition also claimed that some birds were being fed the wrong diets and their habitat amongst so many other species was unsuitable.
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park responded by denying any accusations and assured that all birds were being treated well.
The petition gained 719 signatures, but no changes were implemented according to the information available online.
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What I found positive about the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park
While I found the park to be horrible for the most part, I do want to mention some positive things I noticed.
Firstly, the vegetation in the park is quite nice. Especially zones one and two have elaborate waterfalls and greenery. They could be a great habitat for birds if it weren’t for the giant nets above. The park is also very large. If you look at every exhibit you can easily spend three hours here. Still, I do not think the size justifies the price. I have seen similar fees for zoos three or four times the size with far better animal treatment.

Education at the park
I did notice that the park somewhat tries to educate its visitors about the birds. There were some educational rooms with information about different bird species and their habits. You could see how chicken eggs are incubated and hatched and learn about how to spot bird nests and so on.
I appreciated this effort to raise some awareness for birds. Although it was far from perfect, at least they tried.
The hornbill exhibit, for example, stated that this type of bird flies long distances and enjoys companions. Unfortunately, the hornbill in the Kuala Lumpur bird park has to sit alone in a tiny cage with neither companions nor room to fly. Maybe the park administration should start reading their own labels.


The bird shows
The park holds different events throughout the day. I watched the bird show, which is held twice daily. This was a 20-minute event with parrots who performed little tricks and solved puzzles. It was not an amazing show, but it was okay. It seemed as if the trainers really cared for their birds, and as far as I could tell, they were treated well.
At least these birds had some sort of entertainment and tasks they could do and were not alone in a cage all day. Then again, 20 minutes twice a day is not enough stimulation for these extremely intelligent animals.
It could have been worse, is all I’m trying to say.
Of course, I only saw the performance, not how the birds are trained. Because of this, it is hard for me to give the park credit for the show since I do not have all the information.


Should you visit the Bird Park in KL?
If this post did not convince you, and you are planning to visit the park despite its practices, I can give you some tips on how to best do it and at least make your experience a bit more enjoyable. As mentioned before, you should take a taxi there. Walking will take you at least 30 minutes, if not more, from Pasar Seni Station, and a Grab is very affordable. The Lake Gardens is not a flat area, so you will be walking uphill at times which can be exhausting in the sun.
You will walk a lot in the park because it is so large. Take comfortable shoes and bring sunscreen and insect repellant.
There is only one restaurant near the park, so either be prepared to eat mediocre, slightly expensive food there or make other plans to eat before or after visiting.
Watch out for the monkeys. Since there are some holes in the netting, monkeys get into the aviaries and steal food and personal items from unsuspecting tourists. Do not provoke them or look at them directly, and you should be fine.
When you are ready to leave, do not take one of the taxis waiting in front of the park. They charge an additional fee for pick up here. Get a Grab, which will be much cheaper.
While you are at the Lake Gardens there are plenty of other activities. You can visit the Botanical Gardens, the National Mosque, the National Planetarium, the Police Museum and many more. Most are within walking distance or a short Grab-ride away.

Kuala Lumpur Bird Park – ethical or controversial?
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is not an attraction you should visit on your trip to Malaysia. The negative far outweighs the positive in my opinion. Save the money you would spend on visiting the park and donate it to a reputable animal conservation program that will help us learn more about these magnificent birds and protect them in the future.
Of course, it is interesting to see exotic birds face-to-face.
Of course, you can take great pictures of birds here.
But sometimes, you have to prioritise the well-being of others at the expense of your own enjoyment. Especially if that enjoyment lasts three hours and costs RM 85 (~ €17).
We recommend these things to do in Kuala Lumpur instead.


KL Bird Park ethical or controversial FAQ
The Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is not an ethical place to visit and has been described as controversial in the past.
In my opinion, the Kuala Lumpur Bird Park is not worth visiting due to its animal cruelty, small cages, high prices, unethical practices and controversial past.
The Bird Park in KL is open daily from 9 AM to 5:30 PM
The biggest bird parks in the world are located in Lüneburg, Germany and in Singapore.
The ticket price for the KL Bird Park is currently RM85 or 17€ per foreign adult.
No, the Weltvogelpark Walsrode in Germany is the largest bird park by land and species, while the Jurong Bird Park in Singapore is the largest by the number of birds.
The KL Bird Park is controversial and not an ethical place to visit due to the animal cruelty and mistreatment of the birds.
Before you go…
We’ve walked about why the Bird Park in Kuala Lumpur is controversial and not the most ethical place to visit, so let’s move on to something a bit more positive. I love KL, and my top recommendations for the city are Thean Hou Temple, the KL Tower, these top-secret hidden bars, and the best shopping malls.
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