Named after Sir Edward Youde, Hong Kong’s governor from 1982 to 1986, the Edward Youde Aviary first opened in 1992 and remains the largest aviary in Southeast Asia, spanning 32,000 square feet. After an extensive renovation, it reopened in 2024 as a lush sanctuary within the southwestern corner of Hong Kong Park.
The aviary is home to around 530 birds from 60 species, most native to the rainforests of Malesia—a region stretching from the Malay Peninsula to Borneo, Sumatra, Java, the Philippines, and New Guinea. Notable residents include the critically endangered Bali Myna, the unusual Scheepmaker’s crowned pigeon, and the vividly colored Rainbow Lorikeet. Hornbills, natural predators of the aviary’s smaller birds, are housed in a separate enclosure.
The structure itself is as striking as the collection it holds: four towering arches support a stainless steel mesh suspended 30 meters above a natural valley, creating an open-air enclosure where tropical elements flow freely while birds remain safely within. The interior landscape is carefully planted with figs, kapok, candlenut, and other rainforest trees, with shrubs, leaf litter, waterfalls, and ponds completing the habitat.
Visitors enter along a raised wooden walkway that winds through the canopy, offering close encounters with birds as they flit past or feed from suspended trays. The sounds of wings, birdsong, and falling water echo throughout, softening even the sight of skyscrapers glimpsed through the mesh.
Despite being steps away from Central’s busy CBD, the Edward Youde Aviary evokes the feel of an untouched rainforest—an arcadian refuge where the rhythms of the natural world momentarily drown out the city beyond. A full rainforest ecosystem hidden in the heart of a financial capital, where hornbills and lorikeets soar against a backdrop of steel towers. It is a sanctuary in plain sight, a reminder that even in one of the world’s busiest cities, the wild can still take root and thrive.
