A year in Belize

It has been pretty busy here the past month with lots of new patients coming and going.

Red Lored Parrots

One of these is Pepperito, a parrot who was released and randomly flew onto the balcony and just never left. Some birds become imprinted long before they ever make it to the rescue and no matter how hard we try they just never want to leave. Pepper spends his days outside flying free and then at night comes home where he roosts on top of a curtain rod in the dining room. The guy next to him was released the day before and thought he wanted to live on the balcony too. He was a bit of a slow learner but soon realized their's a whole big world to explore and eventually stopped coming back.

Barn Owls(we got in three total)

What's really sad about these guys is they were healthy fledglings who would've flown away within a few days of when we got them, which they did. The man who called us refused to let them stay in his roof any longer because their screams at night scared his daughter. People here are very superstitious and a lot of them think owls are devil birds.They were released here on the property and we see them every night as they come in for their dinner.

Pionus who I named Dirty Harry

Harry came to us from a local retired vet who has the same passion for birds that we do here at the rescue. A kid knocked on their door and had him in his hands and offered to sell him to them. They could not bare to see him go because they were worried what might happen to him. So they paid $25 US for him. Unfortunately this scenario is quite common here. Kids will rob nests and then go door to door trying to make a buck by selling babies. Harry was one of the lucky ones.He is actually a bit older and it was obvious they had him for a while because as soon as we got him home he started talking : )

Baby Armadillo I named Arnold

This little guy was rescued by some kind hearted people who witnessed him being tormented by a group of children. He is gaining weight daily and he currently lives in my room in an enclosure so I can get up at night and feed him. He was approximately four days old when we got him in.

Roadside Hawk

This guy came in with a no apparent injuries. It is possible he skimmed a car and bruised his sternum which makes it very painful to fly or do anything with the wings

Clay colored Robin

I drive to the market one day and saw a man beating a stick on the ground next to what appeared to be a piece of garbage. He then placed a bucket over the "piece of trash" and started banging the bucket as hard as he could. Right before he had put the bucket over it I saw a tail flutter. Dear God I thought, that's a bird. I ran over and quickly took the bird away from this GROWN MAN who's only explanation was "it fell out of the tree and we thought it was dead." I put the poor thing in the backseat and he rode the whole way home without so much as a peep on the seat. I scooped him up gently when we arrived and placed him in a carrier and left him in the clinic so he could recuperate after his traumatic experience. I am happy to be able to report that the little guy perked up and was released on the property a few hours later. He had probably just ran into something to begin with and would've been fine had he been left alone for a few minutes.