ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Some birds are not out on exhibit at the Albuquerque zoo. It’s in an effort to protect them from the bird flu that Bernalillo County has had a confirmed infection.

KOB 4 got a timeline on how long we could be missing those birds.

“This one is pretty active I feel like usually they’re just sitting there, but this one has been kind of flying and hopping,” said Taylor Eddy, an 

Eddy and her kids were checking out the bald eagle and other birds at the Albuquerque BioPark Zoo Monday afternoon, but there were some birds missing. That’s because the BioPark is taking preventative measures to protect its birds from catching bird flu.

Dr. Carol Bradford is the senior veterinarian at the BioPark. She says no BioPark birds have caught it, but they are bringing some birds inside and adding tarps to other enclosures as a protective measure.

“Really any bird can be susceptible to it. So what we’re doing is kind of taking it case by case risk versus benefit scenario and how easy they are to bring in, how stressful it would be {for the animals} or not stressful to kind of move them out of their habitat for a few days or longer,” said Bradford. 

Bradford says some birds may be temporarily off exhibit while as they go through this process.

BioPark visitor, Amber Silva, says she did notice the missing birds.

“The whole bird area like across the way from the tortoises was closed. We usually spent quite a bit of time there so that was closed off which was kind of weird, it was just really quiet,” said Silva. 

Bradford says the bird flu can spread easily and be deadly, and they want to prevent any birds from getting it.

“It comes from other birds either respiratory secretions or feces or other bodily fluids, so what we’re trying to do is really minimize the exposure of BioPark birds to wild birds,” Bradford said. 

Silva says even without some feathery animals on display, she’d still come back to the zoo.

“It’s still absolutely worth it to come, and it’s still super fun and super great even though the birds are not here,” said Silva. 

Bradford says birds like the flamingos and the peacocks are still on exhibit. Most birds will only temporarily be gone until they can make those changes to exhibits.