With several weeks of winter left, a tropical island would be a nice place to be right now.
Realistically, however, most of us can’t get away to a warm paradise, but there is a spot in Kane County where visitors can pretend, for a short time at least, that winter has disappeared.
That place is the Phillips Park Bird House, located at U.S. Highway 30 and Montgomery Road in Aurora.
“When you are inside looking at the birds, it’s hard to believe that it’s zero outside,” said Jeff Swanson, park department supervisor for the City of Aurora, which owns and operates the bird house. “It’s bright and warm.”
The bird house contains about 100 exotic and tropical birds, Swanson said. There are Amazon parrots, conures, blue and gold macaws, cockatiels and doves, to name a few.
“We attract quite a few bird fanciers and collectors to our bird house,” said Nancy Weiss of Aurora, who is the corresponding secretary and was the first president of the Friends of Phillips Park. “These are birds that are not easy to get anymore.”
She said that many of the birds come from other zoos; some come from members of the public who cannot care for them anymore.
Weiss said that the Friends of Phillips Park try to provide as much educational material as they can, so there is a display with pictures and descriptions of all of the varieties of birds that are in the bird house.
During the winter months, the bird house is open every Saturday and Sunday from noon until 4 p.m., and admission is free.
Weiss said, however, that as lovely as it is to enjoy the tropical warmth of the bird house, there is so much going on outside of it at Phillips Park that the cold weather shouldn’t deter people from those other attractions.
The bird house is part of a 20-acre zoo in Phillips Park. Swanson said that zoos in parks were more common during the 1920s, which is the time the zoo dates to. Phillips Park Zoo, however, is one of the few that remain today.
While it may not be as large or have as many animals as Brookfield Zoo or Lincoln Park Zoo, the smaller size gives visitors the chance to see animals up close, Swanson said.
Except for the bird house, the zoo is open from dawn until dusk 365 days a year.
There are Vietnamese pot-bellied pigs, a brown bear, monkeys and llama, as well as several varieties of deer. One of Weiss’ favorites is the four-horned sheep. “Their wool coats are so full right now,” she said. “They are so interesting.”
Other species at the zoo are white swans, black swans, ducks and geese, and white peacocks.
One can go from the tropics of the bird house to the crisp cold outdoors and enjoy not only the other zoo animals but traditional winter activities such as ice skating or cross-country skiing, which are provided in other areas of the park.
In addition to those two obvious winter activities, Swanson said that the park staff keeps the path cleared around Mastodon Lake, a popular spot for walkers 12 months of the year.
For the past seven years, the Friends of Phillips Park have worked to raise money for improvements as well as raise public awareness of the amenities in the park. Weiss said that a number of activities are held throughout the year to raise public awareness of the park. “We think if we get people in here once, they will keep coming back,” she said.
