Wildlife Conservation Belize Project #54918

Saving Belize's Birds 2024

by Belize Bird Rescue

Project Report | Jan 1, 2024
Happy New Year and Farewell to 2023

By Nikki Buxton | Managing Director

Happy New Year!

The tail end of 2023 brought us 43 patients of 22 different species and included 8 water-birds, 6 songbirds and 20 parrots. The Forest Department confiscated 6 parrots from the illegal pet trade, 10 were owner-surrenders and 4 ‘lost pets’ that had escaped their cage and thankfully found their way to people who would surrender them for rehabilitation and not just put them into another cage as a pet.

As we go into 2024 we have 174 birds at the centre, and as is normal for this time of year, the vast majority of those are parrots. Unfortunately 63 of those parrots are not releasable for various reasons including physical or behavioural issues, however they all live in pairs, groups or flocks of their own species and thanks to your generosity they can remain here at BBR and enjoy as near to a natural and enriched life as us inadequate humans can offer them. This means we have 104 wild-caught parrots that will one day be released back into the wild where they belong. With an approximate cost of around $500US per year for an average parrot’s food and care, we are looking at quite a chunk out of our annual budget of $120,000US.

During these last 4 months of 2023 we released 43 birds and 3 squirrels. The avian releases included 31 parrots, 4 raptors and 4 water-birds. We produced a video of our year’s achievements if you can bear 8 minutes of photos and narration by yours truly! It’s available here on our You Tube page.

Also just a reminder that we produce a monthly newsletter and you can check out past issues or subscribe to every new issue through this link. We promise no-spam or updates other than the monthly newsletter, so your inbox should remain uncluttered, at least by BBR.

We want to take this opportunity to thank you so much for your support throughout the years, and hope that you will continue to help us in any way you can, be it through your amazing generous donations, in sharing our posts, your positive social medial comments or recommending that your friends check out our work. Every interaction helps us to grow our audience and hopefully our donor base. We keep saying this, but it’s completely true, our work is funded by you. Without your generosity, we would not be able to help these incredible creatures and that would be a total tragedy for them. For the parrots at least, BBR is literally their only chance of a natural life and freedom. It’s quite a responsibility when we think about it, and we are beyond lucky that we have you to help us carry that weight.

Wishing you and your loved ones a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2024, where only good things come your way.

Warmest regards

Nikki, and all at Belize Bird Rescue

Bella & Kat - two of our sanctuary parrots

Enrichment is so important

Checking the osprey before release

Toys are fabulous!

Yucatan Squirrel on soft-release at BBR

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Sep 7, 2023
Your generosity is their success

By Nikki Buxton | Executive Director

Released red-lored with baby

July and August have flown by. The core breeding season for this region has drawn to a close and we have a short window to draw breath before we go into our usual pattern of rescues over the next few months.

June and July brought us 73 patients including 30 parrots, 11 raptors, 13 forest birds and 8 members of the toucan family. We made 15 releases over those two months, almost all of those were forest birds and toucans whose rehabilitation is much shorter than any others. We don’t release any rehab parrots during breeding season as hormonal tension tends to be high. September is a great month for those releases, so watch this space!

In total we raised 48 baby parrots this season, 11 of which were endangered yellow-headed Amazon chicks (Amazona oratrix belizensis) removed from nests at-risk from poaching or overcrowding. After we have released any of our long-term rehab parrots that are ready for freedom, we’ll introduce these young red-loreds and white-fronts to the remaining birds in the larger aviaries.

In the meantime, parrots released at BBR in previous years have been extremely busy. We have counted at least 12 wild-hatched baby parrots around the property, a much greater number than we have ever seen. We hear so many more, and the families of disbursed parrots flying over have definitely increased. This is the definition of success. Birds that would have otherwise perished in cages are living and breeding in the wild!

GlobalGiving is holding a Little By Little week from 18 to 22 September, where donations up to $50 per unique donor are guaranteed to be matched at 50% making every single dollar go so much further. Please share this report and our social media posts to help us to reach more potential donors. Believe me, every donation is significant. Every donation makes a difference!

We cannot stress strongly enough how our success is entirely down to your generosity and support. We quite literally cannot help them without you. We receive no government or grant funding. Our ability to operate is entirely down to you.

These second-chance birds and their offspring are your success and reward. They owe you their lives, and we cannot thank you enough for that gift.

With profound gratitude

Nikki & all at BBR

Released aracari fledgling

Hand-raised yellow-headed Amazon chicks

White-wing dove fledgling

White-fronted Amazon chicks being fed

Red-lored Amazon fledglings at BBR

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Jul 6, 2023
Belize Bird Rescue 2nd quarter report

By Nikki Buxton | Managing Director

Fledgeling red-loreds

We can’t believe that half of the year is gone already. We joke that the summer solstice leads us gently downhill to Christmas, but it’s perfectly true. Where on earth does it go?

This last 3 months brought us 104 patients of 41 different species, including 42 parrots, 16 raptors, 30 song/forest birds and 4 gorgeous members of the toucan family. Inevitably, our fuel costs and time spent in the vehicle increases at this time of year, just as we need to be spending more time with the babies at the centre. We definitely need to clone ourselves!

The rains finally broke through in late June giving much-needed respite from the heat and the dry conditions. Seeing the baby parrots take their first rain-bath is one of our many delights at this time of year. Most of our baby parrots are now outside in the weaning enclosures, although traditionally we get a second wave of chicks in July, so we shall see what the month brings us. The indoor nursery spaces are starting to fill with older parrots that were surrendered or confiscated, as well as a few escaped 'pets' found wandering. We like to observe these more fragile personalities for a little while before we begin to introduce them to other parrots.

You’ve probably already heard, but GlobalGiving are having a bonus day on Wednesday July 12^th where donations over $100 are matched at 30%, over $500 at 40% and over $750 at 50%. We will be posting regularly on social media throughout the day, so if you have the chance to share a couple of our posts, it will certainly help us to reach more potential donors that day.

We keep saying it, but we literally couldn’t help these birds without you. Every time we see one of the many free-flying released birds around the Centre, we know it’s entirely due to your generosity that they have been given this incredible second chance.

Thank you so much as always for your continued support. You’re amazing!

Scarlet macaw juvenile

Bathing white-fronted parrots

Trogon

Mangrove Swallows

Yellow-headed Amazon fledgelings

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