Our History
The Full Story
It all started in 1927....
At the turn of the 20th century, Thomas Gould left $3,000 of his estate to the Hamilton Zoological Society for a specific purpose "to make the Dundurn Park Zoo more attractive for little children." The money was invested while the Society pondered its use. In May of 1927, when the sum had grown to $5,000, the Society decided to remodel the animal house at the Zoo and turn it into an aviary. The Hamilton Parks Board agreed to do the work and the Society agreed to find the birds.
The Rocky 90's
In 1992, the "Friends of the Aviary" took over the daily care and needs of the Flock and the aviary ceased to be a city program. In the summer of 1995, with extensive historical restoration efforts at Dundurn Castle, it became apparent that the birds would not be returning to their home of 70 years.
Fortunately, the Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG) site known as the Teaching Gardens was being vacated. Because of the many features suited to the Aviary at this location, the City and the RBG agreed to a multi-year lease and the Aviary was moved July of 1996; indoor enclosures with outdoor flights were built.
Today, we are Canada's oldest public aviary
Although in the past The Aviary was a ecotourism attraction, under the care of volunteers, it became a sanctuary for displaced exotic birds who through no fault of their own needed rehoming.​
Using the volunteer bond, The Hamilton Aviary is able to advocate for exotic birds, rehabilitate and retrain them, and educate and foster a deeper knowledge of what these beautiful creatures are truly capable of. All for the love of birds.
Towards an exciting future!
Unfortunately, in 2023 we learned we could no longer stay at our Oak Knoll sanctuary home of almost 30 years.
Volunteers did our best to try to secure funding through grants and look for land to transform into a new aviary location, but we were unsuccessful. The City opted to rehome the birds, so we all got to work finding them the best homes possible.
The City facilitated some meetings with The Toronto Zoo and Bird Kingdom, both of whom stepped up to offer some of our birds new forever homes! While some birds are being adopted by volunteers, many will remain ambassadors at other organizations for bird care and education.
Looking towards the future, we are pivoting to build a network of foster homes to continue to care for displaced birds and further our organization through expanding our outreach and education efforts!
The Great Migration
With all our current Oak Knoll residents at their new forever homes, we are updating our mission and vision to become a network of foster homes ready to take in exotic birds.
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In August 2024, we began taking steps towards this future, getting ready to onboard new foster parronts and open our resources to new surrendered parrots.