Connecting Families to Nature through Birds: A Reinterpretation of the Wings of the World Exhibit at Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden

The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden has placed a strategic focus on becoming more guest-focused, which includes tailoring interpretive exhibits to engage families, our primary audience. The Wings of the World exhibit building was reinterpreted to create meaningful experiences that connect families to nature through birds and inspire them to become better bird neighbors. As guests navigate the building, which reopened in April 2018, they observe more than 50 bird species from across the globe while making connections to local birds.

Over three years, Zoo guests participated in development and design through focus groups, prototyping, observations, interviews, and exit questionnaires to shape and assess the final interpretive design. Innovative opportunities to promote family interaction include an immersive, interpretive space where guests role play as a flock of migratory birds facing challenges along their journey, such as avoiding collisions with glass and finding suitable habitat. Each challenge teaches guests how they can make this journey easier for birds by addressing that particular issue in their own home. Guests can also practice their local bird identification skills by playing “Guess Who? Name that Cincinnati Bird.” And they are invited to pledge to take action on behalf of birds.

Results from evaluation conducted by Lifelong Learning Group suggest that Wings of the World successfully engages family groups. Guests took away a strong understanding of the general messages of the exhibit space, with enough specificity to articulate key conservation actions they could take to become better bird neighbors. The strongest successes in messaging were those that were cross-cutting and visible throughout the whole space: improving awareness related to bird diversity, encouraging visitors to pay closer attention to birds around them, and inspiring a connection to nature.