A round of applause, please, for Savannah. She's 4 years old, a beautiful bird, colourful in more ways than one - a Northern Grand Hornbill with a vibrant, gold-yellow beak that draws plenty of oohs-and-aahs from the audience perched on tiered concrete seating.
Children clap, parents wave cameras and recorders, and Savannah nonchalantly acknowledges the adulation with a slow cock of the head, then a last glance over her shoulder, before swallowing a tasty titbit from the hand of trainer and show presenter Cindy Williams.
Welcome to the free-flight show staged daily, at 11am and 2pm (weather permitting), at Durban's Umgeni River Bird Park, just 10 minutes from the city centre in Riverside Road, on the bank of the Umgeni River.
Here, in an amphitheatre where shaded seating overlooks a stage area featuring perches, rocks and foliage around a little pond, Savannah rules in the glamour stakes, alongside sleek and sexy, blue-and-yellow macaw, Charlie.
But they're not the only standouts in this half-hour cabaret which, both entertaining and educational, has been presented at the park since 1996.
The informal production features a changing cast of birds from North and South America, Africa, Indonesia and Australia, the emphasis during the unbridled displays of flight, plumage, habits and habitats, being on conservation and education.
Other showstoppers in the cabaret include black vulture Sabrina; Boo, the tiny white-faced owl; and leggy lady Boston, an endangered Wattle Crane from South Africa.
Then there's Griffin, introduced as the true star of the show, who struts in to the amplified beat of We Are Growing, the theme from Shaka Zulu.
He's a Cape vulture, found poisoned a few years ago and slowly nurtured back to health. He has a balancing problem which has resulted in him having a bit of a comical walk, and managing to fly only very short distances, but he shows he's a real trooper when it comes to entertaining his audience.
We also get to meet the grand dame of the show - Gaya, a confident and classy old gal who hops in with great gusto, and perches and parades her plumes with aplomb.
Gaya, with her distinctive blue throat pouch, is one of only four Reefed Hornbills trained for shows like this around the world and, at 33 years old, she's not only a seasoned show pro and the oldest of all the show birds, but has earned her place as the diva of this park.
Head trainer Tarryn Bristow is proud of her performers, she says backstage later, going on to chat enthusiastically about new cast members that are being introduced this month.
They include Beetle the pied crow, Polly the green macaw, Yzma the toco toucan and Bishop the vulture.
Love, some gentle persuasion, lots of repetition and edible or plaything rewards are the secrets to creating good cast members, she says with a smile, pointing out that some tricks can be taught in minutes, while others can take days.
Tricks, in this case, being the likes of a hop here, a cock of the head there, or commands to fly from one perch to another, or from shoulder to hand.
Bristow adds, too, that some of the amphitheatre scenery is also being revamped this month.
She laughs out loud when asked to share anecdotes from shows.
"Lots of those... Savannah, for instance, has this thing for baby toys, the squeaky variety, and seems to fish them out from the audience when she knows they're there."
There is also a smile at the memory of Sabrina once having impolitely used her beak to lift high the skirt of a woman in the audience, leading to much hilarity.
There's a lot of fun involved, but the educational side of the show is what's most important to Bristow and her team, which includes fellow trainers and presenters Cindy Williams, Zamani Makhathini and Ellisha Surjooram, as well as show manager Grant Agett.
While delighting their audiences, this devoted team also emphasises things such as habitat destruction and the need to protect endangered bird species.
The park offers 240 different species of birds in aviaries, alongside large ponds and in the open - you'll even find birds sunning themselves on the floor, even nesting in the thatched roof at the Cockatoo Café on the premises.
Passionate about the educational side of things is Rekha Naidoo, who has spent 19 years at the park. Its education officer, she has devised an interesting programme for schools wishing to visit, giving pupils a guided tour and worksheets.
The cost for all school groups is R15 per person, while the normal cost to enter the park and enjoy the free flight show is R30 for adults (R25 for senior citizens and under-12s).
It's worth noting that the park recently introduced two new walk-through avaries, one featuring 27 species of African birds, the other 10 different species of hand-reared lorikeets.
The park is is open every day, except Christmas Day, from 9am to 5pm. For more details call 031-579-3377.