We went to view the botanical gardens in funchal, to find they also kept a variety of birds in cages for people to view. These poor poor birds did not have any stimulation just shut up in cages probably till they die, the first cage you encounter had a couple of birds with no way of avoiding the elements. This has put me off ever going back to Madeira, my memories are of sad birds "what was the point" it certainly did nothing to make my trip any better and I was so looking forward to looking at the gardens. So animal lovers don't bother unless you want to feel miserable.

Recently returned from Madeira-great holiday but letdown at botanical gardens not by plants but by exotic bird park within gardens.Although official standards are met the birds looked bored and depressed with their spartan surroundings;I'd rather not see these beautiful creatures live if we can't give them decent surroundings!

Funchal's Botanical Gardens are beautiful but they were spoiled for me by the captive birds. A huge number of exotic birds are kept in dull cages with virtually nothing to interest them. They can flit about but these cages are too small to be termed proper aviaries. The Touraco in particular was showing great signs of distress when we visited (May 09). Keeping birds like this is unnecessary, the environment is unnatural and nothing educational is achieved. It would be a great improvement if the Botanical Gardens could completely re-design this area into a huge and interesting aviary, or, better still, stop keeping the birds altogether. Simone Stanbrook-Byrne

We visited the Botanic Gardens in November 2007 and apart from it being a bargain at only being 3euros to go in we were pleased with all it had to offer. The flowers were plentiful, the views superb and lots of birds to see. We would certainly recommend a trip there. We went by bus from Funchal and that is an experience not to be missed!