Sylvan Heights Waterfowl Park is hoping a bird in the hand will be worth a memorable experience when The Landing Zone opens next week.

Today the park opened the interactive attraction to members of the media to experience what visitors will see when the exhibit opens to the public March 23 at 10 a.m.

The exhibit is an open, free flight aviary where parakeets will land on the arms of visitors to feed from handheld feed sticks. Some, as experienced today, will alight without the lure of food. When the exhibit opens visitors will pay a $1 for a feed stick.

“When the bird comes to you it gives an opportunity to make a connection,” said Brad Hazleton, general curator. “We think people in their 80s to 2-year-olds will love feeding the birds.”

Birds alight on Monica Hazelton.

Inside The Landing Zone are budgerigar, commonly known as parakeets, Victoria crowned pigeons, green winged doves, American flamingoes, roul roul and Javan pond herons. The flamingoes wade in a pond by a waterfall.

The exhibit was built in-house, although the staff had help with the rock waterfall, said Brent Lubbock, membership and development projects manager. “We saved a lot of money. The exhibit probably costs $50,000 but would have definitely cost hundreds of thousands of dollars if we didn’t do it ourselves.”

The Canon Foundation, the Freeze Family and individual donations made funding for The Landing Zone possible, Lubbock said.

A flamingo.

The park gets between 27,000 to 28,000 visitors a year, Lubbock said. “With this exhibit, we think we’ll add to those numbers.”

For more information visit the park’s website.