Ok, excuse the pun. Moving on to a long-overdue Wildlife Wednesday post! Of course, the only place to pick back up is at Animal Kingdom and Winged Encounters in front of the Tree of Life. This short show brings Macaws to a bird stand to the left of the Tree of Life and leads to a brief spiel by Cast Members inviting you to watch the Flights of Wonder bird show. Before you know it, the Macaws receive the signal and take off low over your head on their flight back to the Flights of Wonder stage.

I had my camera ready and started clicking away once I saw the first Macaw take flight. To my surprise, a Macaw made a close pass and brushed the top of my head with its wing as it passed. What I found later was a really cool photo that captured the moment.

While the brief Winged Encounters show doesn’t have any official showtimes, if you spend some time in front of the Tree of Life and see some Macaws gathering, make sure to get your camera out for a low pass-over and a close encounter of the bird kind!