Saving Belize's Birds 2024

I can’t believe May is over and the rains are upon us once more. It’s been an extremely short and moderate dry season, which is fabulous for BBR as the rains put an end to the heat, dust, fires and smoke. It also shrinks the window for land clearing, illegal and legal logging and so many other human activities that adversely affect the baby bird season. This may be why we have had such a quiet season so far (don’t speak too soon!) With fires abating and poachers held at bay by the muddy trails, the rangers in the southern reserves only needed to pull 6 yellow-headed amazon chicks this year. The addition to the flock of our single surrendered chick makes 7 yellow-heads in total to carry over to the next breeding season. Quite the breeze! We are caring for other species of parrot chicks rescued from fires, fallen nests, dodgy feather condition and a couple of inappropriate human interventions, but all in all a very gentle start to the season.

Thanks to some amazing generosity, we have been cracking on with several maintenance and expansion projects, and have also taken on a lovely new employee, Victoria, who amongst many other tasks, is giving a new look to our TikTok account. Check it out and let us know what you think.

Since last month’s update we have taken in 57 new patients, including 18 parrots, 9 owls, and various waterbird, woodpecker, toucan and songbird species. The variety has been fun and kept us on our toes, although the number of owls has been crazy.

We've made a start on our new songbird enclosure. We’re gutted we haven't finished it yet, but a combination of finances and available resources has held us back. We’re getting creative with natural materials so watch out for updates on social media. We did get the entire nursery tiled however, which has been on the list for the best part of 10 years. I did a happy dance on that floor I can tell you! We also refurbished and re-wired another of our 20 x 20 enclosures making another gorgeous, clean safe space for some of our 194 rehab patients.

I know you understand that we can’t do any of this without your incredible generosity. Every month we breathe a huge sigh of relief when the GlobalGiving disbursement hits our account. We simply can’t thank you enough, but we hope these brief updates will give you some idea of how much we rely on, and value, your kindness and support. This support is directly responsible for our success. Thank you so much, you are amazing!

with fondest regards

Nikki & the BBR Team