Saving Belize's Birds 2024

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