Bird Paradise is Singapore's great bird park and one of the largest and most modern in Asia: an immersive journey through eight huge aviaries where you walk among thousands of birds from all over the planet, with no bars in between. Opened in 2023 in the Mandai nature area, it took over from the legendary Jurong Bird Park —which ran for half a century— and completely reinvented it with a more ecological, immersive concept: instead of cages, large enclosures that recreate entire biomes, where you stroll surrounded by free-flying birds.
The park is organised by habitat: tropical wetlands full of flamingos and waterbirds, an Asian forest with Southeast Asian species, the African savannah, the Australian outback, the Amazon rainforest with its macaws and toucans, and even an air-conditioned Antarctic coast with penguins. In each aviary, paths and boardwalks take visitors into the heart of an ecosystem, with waterfalls, lush vegetation and hundreds of birds flying, singing and feeding all around. There are also bird shows, feeding areas and encounters that delight kids and adults alike.
This guide covers everything Bird Paradise offers: how much admission costs, how to get to Mandai (which is somewhat far from the centre), which aviaries you shouldn't miss and how to combine the visit with the other parks in the area, such as the Zoo or the Night Safari. It's the best dose of nature and wildlife on a trip to Singapore, a relaxed and colourful outing perfect for families and bird lovers, very different from the bustle of the city.
Bird Paradise opened in 2023 as the successor to the historic Jurong Bird Park, the bird park that operated from 1971 in the west of the island and was for decades one of the best loved in Singapore and Asia. The creation of Jurong Bird Park is credited to an idea of then Deputy Prime Minister Goh Keng Swee, who, after visiting an aviary in Brazil, pushed for a large bird park for the city-state. Over time, Singapore's wildlife operator (today Mandai Wildlife Group) decided to bring all its parks together in a single nature hub in Mandai, in the north of the island, next to the Singapore Zoo, the Night Safari and River Wonders. So Jurong closed in 2023 and its birds moved to the new Bird Paradise, designed with a far more immersive and ecological concept, with large cage-free aviaries recreating biomes from around the world. The new park also continues the conservation and breeding work for threatened species that Jurong already carried out. The full history of Singapore and its 'garden city' policy is on our history page.
Read the full history ↓Singapore's green and industrial west: the Botanic Gardens that gave rise to Asia's rubber industry, the Jurong swamps turned into factories and the great wildlife parks of Mandai.
Read the history of West and nature →No exact prices: a scale from $ (budget) to $$$$$ (luxury), with 2-3 options per category.
Origins, formation and what the sources say.
The story of Singapore's birds begins, oddly enough, on the other side of the world. In the early 1960s, Goh Keng Swee, one of the great architects of modern Singapore and then Minister for Finance (later Deputy Prime Minister), visited Brazil and was captivated by a large aviary in Rio de Janeiro. He came back from that trip with an idea: Singapore, a young, dense city-state on the verge of take-off, should have a great bird park, a space for nature and leisure that would also project a friendly, cultured image of the country.
The idea fitted perfectly with the thinking of Singapore at the time. Newly independent in 1965, the city-state, under the leadership of Lee Kuan Yew, was set on transforming itself at full speed, and one of its flagship policies was the 'garden city': filling a metropolis with greenery and nature to make it more liveable and attractive. A world-class bird park added to that vision, and was also a tourist and educational asset.
That is how Jurong Bird Park was born, opening in 1971 in the west of the island, in the industrial area of Jurong. It was one of the first major tourist attractions of independent Singapore and, for more than five decades, one of the largest and most admired bird parks in Asia, visited by generations of Singaporeans and by millions of tourists. Goh Keng Swee's 'Brazilian idea' had taken flight.
For fifty-two years, Jurong Bird Park was a beloved institution in Singapore. It came to house thousands of birds from hundreds of species and was a pioneer in several ways: it had one of the largest walk-in free-flight aviaries in the world, with a towering indoor waterfall; it was among the first to breed certain difficult species in captivity; and it popularised bird shows, in which birds of prey, parrots and other species flew in front of the audience showing off their behaviour, a format that combined entertainment and education.
Generations of Singaporean children saw their first flamingo, penguin or eagle there; countless school trips, family outings and tourist visits passed along its paths. The park became part of the city's emotional memory, a place tied to childhood and family weekends, and an ambassador for bird conservation in the region.
Over time, however, the facilities aged, and global standards on animal welfare and zoo design moved towards larger, more natural and immersive enclosures. On top of that, Singapore's wildlife operator developed an ambitious plan: to bring all its animal parks together in a single large nature hub, creating a world-class wildlife destination. That plan would, with some nostalgia, seal the fate of the old Jurong Bird Park.
The key to the change was the creation of a large wildlife hub in Mandai, a green, forested area in the north of Singapore. Several parks had already been operating there for decades: the Singapore Zoo (opened in 1973 and famous worldwide for its 'open zoo' concept, with enclosures without visible barriers), the Night Safari (the world's first nocturnal safari, opened in 1994) and River Wonders (devoted to river ecosystems). The operator, now called Mandai Wildlife Group, came up with a plan to turn the whole area into a large integrated wildlife reserve, the Mandai Wildlife Reserve.
As part of that plan, it was decided to move the birds from the old Jurong Bird Park, in the west, to a new purpose-built park in Mandai, next to the others. The idea was twofold: on the one hand, to give the birds modern, larger and more natural facilities; on the other, to concentrate all the wildlife parks in a single destination, so that visitors could combine them and the operation could gain in efficiency and scale.
Moving thousands of birds from one park to another was a delicate logistical operation, requiring years of planning, the construction of the new park and the careful transfer of the birds to their new homes. Jurong Bird Park closed in January 2023, and a few months later, in 2023, the new Bird Paradise opened its doors, heir to that half-century of history but conceived with a radically different philosophy.
Bird Paradise is not simply Jurong Bird Park in a new location: it is a complete reinvention of the concept. Instead of traditional cages and enclosures, it was designed around eight large immersive aviaries, each recreating one of the planet's biomes — tropical wetlands, Asian forest, African savanna, Australian outback, Amazon rainforest, Antarctic coast — through which visitors walk surrounded by free-flying birds, among plants, waterfalls and recreated landscapes. It is a far more immersive experience and one that is kinder to animal welfare, in line with today's standards at the world's best parks.
Behind the spectacle, the park keeps and strengthens the conservation mission Jurong already had: breeding and protecting threatened bird species, taking part in international breeding programmes and teaching the public about biodiversity and the threats birds face (hunting, the pet trade, habitat destruction). The bird shows, a direct legacy of Jurong, still combine excitement with an ecological message.
In this way, Bird Paradise represents both the continuity and the evolution of half a century of history. It keeps the legacy, the birds and the conservation mission of the old park, but carries them into the future with cutting-edge design. It is a perfect example of how Singapore tends to treat its heritage: rather than freezing it, it reinvents it, always aiming to match the best in the world.
Today's Bird Paradise is one of the largest and most modern bird parks in Asia and one of Singapore's great nature attractions. With its eight immersive aviaries, its shows, its penguin cove and its thousands of birds from all over the world, it offers an immersive, educational experience that delights families, nature lovers and the simply curious, while also playing a real role in conserving threatened species.
As part of the Mandai Wildlife Reserve, it belongs to a large wildlife hub that includes the Zoo, the Night Safari and River Wonders, letting visitors put together full days of nature on the doorstep of one of the most urban cities on the planet. It is, in a way, the other face of Singapore: in contrast to the skyscrapers and malls, a space devoted to biodiversity, environmental education and contact with wildlife.
Above all, Bird Paradise is the continuation of a story that began more than half a century ago, when a minister came back from Brazil with an idea. Many of the birds flying in its aviaries today are descendants or heirs of those from the old Jurong Bird Park, the childhood park of generations of Singaporeans. The name changed, the location changed, the concept was completely transformed, but the legacy — a love of birds, the commitment to conserving them and bringing them closer to people — is, quite literally, still flying. A very Singaporean story of reinvention without forgetting.
