clipped from: www.telegraph.co.uk   
London Zoo has spent £2.5m on a tropical bird house in a restored Victorian pavilion
A miniature rainforest has been created in the Blackburn Pavilion which will become home to more than 50 species of exotic birds
Two Blue-crowned lory's touch beaks (left) and a Red-crested turaco in flight (right)
Two Blue-crowned lory's touch beaks
and a Red-crested turaco in flight
Birds including the Socorro dove, Bali starling, Toco toucan and Mindanao bleeding heart dove will roam free in the pavilion which has been designed as part of ZSL London Zoo's plan to bring down the bars and allow visitors to come face to face with the occupants
The Blackburn Pavilion was once a reptile house built in 1883 with the proceeds of the sale of the zoo's most famous occupant - the 11-feet-tall African elephant Jumbo - to circus owner P T Barnum. It was converted to a birdhouse in the 1920s
A Red-crested turaco (left), a Toco toucan (middle) and Red-crested cardinal (right)
Red-crested turaco
Toco toucan
and Red-crested cardinal
A black-winged stilt (left) and Queen Victoria (who became the patroness of the Zoological Society of London in 1837) observing a blue-bellied roller
Black-winged stilt
Queen Victoria
observing a Blue-bellied roller
Emma Kenley with a blue-bellied roller (left) and a red-crested cardinal feeding on a meal worm (right)
Blue-bellied roller
Red-crested cardinal
All pictures by Oli Scarff