Toucan Sightings on the Rise in the City
The Belize Audubon Society has a year round calendar filled with educational activities about the flora and fauna of the country. The folks at the Audubon, however, have noted a change in the bird population in Belize City. They have noted that our national bird, the toucan, is increasing in population in the old Capital. News Five spoke to Audubon’s Birdman and publicity coordinator, Dirk Francisco about the sightings as well as the bird count carried out in December.
“The toucans that you see flying around Belize City is unusual and exciting for most birders or people who live in Belize City,” commented Dirk Francisco, Publicity Coordinator, B.A.S. to News 5 in Belize City.
“They are surprised to see toucans flying out in Belize City. I nearly said the wild, but right now Belize City is wild for tree toucans. The reason the toucans are in Belize City is because these birds were displaced due to hurricane Richard. Richard just changed the habitat for these birds and they found happiness in Belize City, I guess. But right now I am encouraging Belizeans please whenever you see the toucans they are beautiful birds, many people like to see them. Stop stone the toucans.”
Dirk Francisco says that the Belize Audubon Society conducted a bird count in December of last year. The census monitors the number of birds that visit Belize during the winter.
“It’s a citizen science, anybody could participate, but we already had the activity conducted and we had a high turnout of birds this year,” commented Francisco. “The Belmopan area for example, we recorded a total of 254 species of birds. One of the reasons why we saw many bird was because the forest opened up. Hurricane Richard fell a lot of trees. As Belizeans can remember the centre of the hurricane passed right around Belmopan area, so because of that we got the opportunity to see many, many birds that were normally difficult to see because of the denseness of the forest or the jungle. So the Belize City bird count had a total of 219 species and then the Cockscomb Basin Christmas bird count that Belize Audubon Society conducted had a total of 214 species of birds.”
Sourse: Channel 5 News, Belize City
