383 Bird Species Spotted in Belize for Global Big Day!
Last week we told you about “Global Big Day” which was being observed on Saturday. It’s a single day out of the year when birders all over the world try to spot as many bird species as they can in a twenty-four hour period. Despite the S.O.E. restrictions which limit movement across districts and out of your home for leisure activities, close to one hundred birders participated in the global event right from their backyards in Belize. Birding expert, Roni Martinez says that the E-Bird platform stats record an impressive showing for Belize despite the limitations caused by COVID-19. Martinez tells us more about the three hundred and eighty three species recorded for Belize.
Roni Martinez
Roni Martinez, Tour Guide & Birding Expert
“Using the e-bird platform they recorded, for Belize, on Global Big Day three hundred and eighty-three species. That is a significant number taking into account that most of these participants couldn’t go out birding at national parks and so forth. So, this is mostly from people’s backyards from all over the place. This was really special because we had participants from every single district. I will just give you a quick breakdown of what the participants accomplished. So, Cayo reported two hundred and ninety-seven different species; Orange Walk reported two hundred and twenty-one different species; Belize district reported a total of two hundred and twenty; Toledo two hundred species; Corozal had one hundred and seventy-eight and Stann Creek one hundred and thirty-six different species. From what I managed to extract from the report so far, we had about a hundred people reporting from Belize. That is a number that is significantly higher than previous years. But it shows that really now when we are in lockdown that this is a really enjoyable hobby and people are just discovering this and they are enjoying it. The fact that a lot of new birders were out there in their backyards birding shows that there is also a potential for this to grow in Belize. We also put Belize on the map when it comes to birding because a lot of people noticed that this is such a small country but we reported three hundred and eighty-three species in one day and well over five hundred checklists submitted for that day. We had some really good birds. People reported stuff like jabiru right from their backyards. For us we had a rare bird which is the American Avocet and we had somebody reporting a gray kingbird. But all in all the effort was massive. I am very happy with the results and so is everyone who participated. We were kind of doubting what we could accomplish being the fact that you could only bird from your house or a very close area. But the results are very impressive.”
If you are interested in birding and want to connect with fellow birders and local experts, you can join the Belize Birding Network on Facebook.
