I've been considering how they might do birds. As I said in my other post, because 'birds' is such an immense group of diverse animals, they would have to make this a bigger pack than the current pattern suggests, and it entirely depends on how they implement birds as to what is or isn't possible.
That said, I was thinking about what birds are "important" to zoo collections, and in my mind they can be broken down into five categories:
- Parrots. This is the big one. There are more exotic parrots in zoos and private collections than any other kind of bird.
- Birds of prey. This one also goes without saying.
- Waterfowl. A big group, which would contain ducks, geese, and swans, but also herons, ibises, cranes, and so on.
- Pheasants. If the pack is made around specifically flying birds, this can be ommitted and dispersed into other DLC.
- Other. This category would contain the pigeons, doves, and passerines, such as mynah and kookaburra.
So I compiled a conservative list of twelve animals, excluding pheasants, which I would hope is rounded out enough:
- Blue and gold macaw.
- Sulphur-crested cockatoo.
- African grey parrot.
- Steller's sea eagle.
- White-backed vulture.
- Peregrine falcon.
- Waldrapp ibis (northern bald ibis).
- Toco toucan.
- Greater hornbill.
- Grey crowned crane.
- Laughing kookaburra.
- Magpie goose.
It might seem random, but I have put some thought into it. The macaw, grey parrot, and cockatoo, are all very much common zoo animals, and very much iconic of parrots. The sea eagle is important to conservation, the vulture is typical of African collections (I tossed up between it and the lammergeier, but the latter felt more niche - the Egyptian vulture might also be a good choice), and the falcon is one people automatically go to when discussing birds of prey. The ibis is also very important for conservation and has that 'weird' factor, while the toucan and hornbill should go without saying. The crane is another popular African wetlands species, while the kookaburra is extremely renowned and large enough that it can steal attention. The goose is the oddball, but they were in the X-Box version of Zoo Tycoon which Frontier was heavily involved with, and they're unique enough that I think they could be a bit like the Dall sheep, where they seem like a strange choice but wind up being beloved.
As for features, the obvious one would be aviaries. As I said we have no idea how this is going to work. Personally I wouldn't mind a large collection of prefabricated aviaries that function similarly to exhibits, others want total customisation. All opinions are valid, at least we can almost guarantee we'd get aviary mechanics. I also think a bird show would be a cool feature. It would be an amphitheatre facility where the talents of birds can be shown off. Not like a circus act where the birds do tricks, but like modern educational displays where it's a case of showing people how intelligent and powerful birds really are.
I'd also expect to see a whole host of bird-related objects, such as nest-boxes for breeding, new enrichment items and feeding options which require height to access, and perhaps even new ways for visitors and birds to interact. A common feature in some zoos is a public bird feeding where guests basically hold out the food and the birds come down and land on them. I've taken part in this with rainbow lorikeets, kea, and various other smaller species. That would be a neat little gimmick for aviaries, I think.
This might also be a good place to add in the highly-requested animal-related special effects. Things like butterflies, pond fish, even smaller birds could be made into looping effects that you can place anywhere.
