Belize Bird Rescue

We stopped for lunch at Corkers in Belmopan to eat on their shady open air terrace before we went to pay a visit to the nearby Belize Bird Rescue.  And who should we see also having lunch there but Nikki Buxton, who along with her husband founded BBR in 2004 with the original goal of rehabilitating captured parrots for release back into the wild.  Their work has expanded over the years to include veterinary care for injured wild birds of any species (song birds to birds of prey), permanent housing for birds that cannot be returned to the wild, hand-rearing baby parrots that were at risk of poaching for the lucrative (and illegal) wild bird trade, and support for birds that still need a little help  but can live freely.  The goal is to get as many birds back into the wild as they can.  They have an amazing facility and have built up a cadre of international and local veterinary and trained volunteers to support the massive work they do.  In fact, Nikki was dining with 3 volunteers/colleagues who had just arrived that morning and were on their way to BBR.  It was also no surprise that they were lunching at Corkers, which is owned by Nikki's daughter and gives a portion of its profit to support BBR.  Nikki's passion is parrots, especially the endangered yellow-headed parrot.  BBR's yellow-headed parrot program, which they began in 2014, has reintroduced more than 150 yellow-headed back into the wild at two sites.  You can check out this BBR website to see the work they do for the yellow-headed parrots.   

We had an all too short visit to BBR, but were able to see - hear! - lots of parrots and get some nice photos.  There was also some excitement with a happy ending!

We took a few photos of these two white-crowned parrots which get to fly free, but still need feeding support.  They were very inquisitive.  I love how they raise their white crowns when they talk to you.

Red-lored parrot.  If I remember correctly this individual is not releasable and is a permanent resident of BBR.  We see wild red-lored parrots at our place.

Quite a few yellow-headed parrots in this enclosure.  In nature, they live in flocks and this enclosure is large enough to house a small flock.   

Every day we see or hear a flock of yellow-headed parrots as they feed on papayas, mangos, craboo, and other fruit trees at our place.  Their wild presence here is due entirely to the yellow-headed parrot program of BBR.  One of their release sites at Payne's Creek National Park is only 8.5 miles from us as the parrot flies.

Now for the excitement.  As we were touring the enclosures, Jonathan noticed that 2 birds had gotten out of their own enclosure.  These are 2 huge macaws - Bella, a blue and gold macaw, and Kat, a Catalina macaw which is a hybrid between a blue and gold and a scarlet macaw.  These 2 birds, although healthy, are not releasable because they are not native to Belize.  So there was some consternation at seeing them out of their enclosure.  The visiting avian vet was talking to one of the employees about capture strategies involving nets and boxes while another employee ran to get Nikki.  Nikki arrived with a tray of peanuts and you can see the rest for yourself . . .

What an amazing display of Nikki's rapport with the macaws!  Because they trusted her, she was able to lure them into an enclosure with  very little fuss and no trauma.  They wouldn't go in just for the peanuts - they wanted Nikki!  You can see why Dennis and I are proud to support BBR; they are passionate about birds and work tirelessly to keep birds flying free.