Feathered Friends in Flight!

Feathered Friends in Flight!: show at Disney's Animal Kingdom Theme Park, Walt Disney World — showtimes, live status, and planning data on MouseHub.

Visitor sentiment

4.8· 152 Google ratings

Visitors say this bird show is a great way to learn about the intelligence of birds and their importance to nature. They also highlight the show's educational value, engaging presentation, and entertaining hosts.

Summarized with Gemini · Report summary

The MouseHub take

Feathered Friends in Flight! is a 35-minute live bird show at the Anandapur Theater in Asia, and it plays outdoors under a roof that covers the seating. Animal behavior specialists work the stage while birds fly free overhead: a trumpeter hornbill foraging, a great horned owl hunting in silence, a raven getting into mischief, plus African crowned cranes, parrots, and bald eagles. The flight paths cross low over the seats, and the avian experts pull volunteers out of the audience for the close encounters.

It works best as a mid-afternoon break, parked in Asia between Expedition Everest and Kali River Rapids. The benches have no backs, support poles block the stage from some angles, and the cover keeps the sun off without doing much about the heat. Kids and anyone who likes animals walk out happy. Guests who are uneasy around birds spend the whole show flinching at the flyovers. Check the showtimes on this page before you walk over, since it doesn't run daily and weather cancels it.

At a glance

Best for
Families with young kids, and anyone who wants 35 minutes off their feet in the middle of an Animal Kingdom afternoon.
Skip if
Birds flying low over your head sounds like a bad time, or you have one day at Animal Kingdom with Flight of Passage and Kilimanjaro Safaris still to get through.
Ride type
Live bird show in an outdoor theater
Intensity
Low. Birds fly low over the seats, and the sudden movement startles some young kids.

The good

  • Birds fly low right over the seats
    The birds work the whole theater rather than just the stage, and the flight paths cross over the seating. The front rows get the closest passes.
  • The lineup goes well past parrots
    A trumpeter hornbill, a great horned owl, African crowned cranes, and bald eagles all appear. Each segment is built around what that bird does in the wild.
  • You sit in the shade for all of it
    A cover runs over the seating, so a half hour of the afternoon happens out of direct sun. That alone earns it a slot on a hot day.
  • Animal behavior specialists run the show
    The people onstage are the ones who work with these birds, and the show is built as a behind-the-scenes look at how that goes. The tone stays light while they explain the training.
  • Wheelchairs and ECVs stay put
    Disney lists this as May Remain in Wheelchair/ECV, so nobody in your party transfers to a bench to watch.
  • The hosts pull guests into the show
    Volunteers come out of the audience for the interactive moments and the close encounters. That's the part kids repeat back at dinner.

The bad

  • The flyovers rattle some guests
    Birds pass close over people's heads on the way across the theater. Anyone uneasy around birds spends the show ducking rather than watching.
  • The benches have no backs
    It's bleacher seating. Thirty-five minutes on a backless bench after a morning of walking is a long sit.
  • Summer afternoons get hot under the roof
    There's no air conditioning in an open-air theater. The shade helps, but a full house on a July afternoon is still warm work.
  • Support poles get in the way
    Columns holding up the roof sit in the sightlines of several sections. From the wrong seat you watch part of the show around a post.
  • The script leans corny
    The hosts bridge segments with broad jokes pitched at kids. Adults who came for the birds sit through a fair amount of it.
  • It doesn't run daily
    Disney lists the show as subject to change and cancels it for weather, since the theater is open to the sky. A rainy afternoon can take it off the schedule.

Veteran tips

  • Check the showtimes before you head over
    The showtimes on this page are the ones to plan around. Confirm them on the day rather than the week before, because the show skips days and rain cancels it outright.
  • The show runs a full 35 minutes
    Plan it as a sit-down block in the middle of Asia rather than something you squeeze between two rides.
  • Don't spend a Lightning Lane pick here
    Animal Kingdom has no tier split on Multi Pass, so you get three picks from one list, and Expedition Everest and Kilimanjaro Safaris are on the same list. A theater this size seats standby without much of a wait.
  • Sit in the middle sections
    The center benches give you the stage and the flight paths with nothing in the way. The far sides are where the poles do their damage.
  • Sit up front if you want to be picked
    The hosts take volunteers out of the audience and work the front rows to find them. Get there a few minutes early if someone in your party wants a turn.
  • Pair it with Everest and Kali River Rapids
    All three sit in Asia, so you can build an afternoon on that side of the park without crossing it twice. The show is the one that gets you off your feet.

MouseHub editorial, written from visitor reports and official Disney sources. Last reviewed .

Sources