Avian outings abound near Amsterdam

"What was that ostrich doing?" I demanded of a resident bird trainer in the hotel lobby that day.

Her cheeks flushed as red as her hair as she avoided my eyes and studied a display of stuffed toy birds. "It is a mating dance," she said with a glance at my tall, handsome husband. "The ostrich likes him."

Jonathan and I are self-professed bird nerds, volunteer educators at our local raptor center. We had reserved four nights at Hotel Avifauna because it sits adjacent to the largest bird park in the Netherlands, 25 miles southwest of Amsterdam. Three thousand birds of 400 species live here. Enormous enclosures house an extensive collection of hornbills, their vibrant beaks impossibly bulbous above slim bodies. Surrender a euro in the Lorikeet exhibit, and children can feed the rainbow-hued Australian birds a cup of nectar. Six snowy owls guard one end of a low brick castle, while a great gray owl presides over the other.

The Avifauna Birdpark makes for a verdant, tranquil escape from crowds at the Van Gogh Museum and tourists thronging the Leidensplein. Or so we thought.

Leave your window open at night and you'll be awakened at 5 a.m. by shrieks and howls. The nighttime hooting of Eurasian eagle owls gives way to the plaintive call of seagulls and the squawking of ducks in the streams meandering through the compound. Two bald eagles sound their "kak-kak-kak" cry in the middle of the park.

The Avifauna has a fine restaurant with a belt-busting complimentary breakfast and picture windows overlooking trees full of birds. Lunch and dinner offerings include vegetarian dishes as well as steak, salmon, and chicken. Another restaurant at the end of the park allows visitors to sit inside or out, snacking on Dutch "patat" (french fries with mayonnaise), while storks build nests in the treetops overhead.