Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary – Belize

About

Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary is a protected nature reserve in Belize. 200 years ago, English loggers called the place “Crooked Tree” because of the strange, crooked shapes the logwood trees grew in. This reserve is a key place in bird conservation. In 1972, the Belize Audubon Society requested protection for birds here. It was later considered to be an official waterfowl habitat on April 22, 1998, under the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. The area is made up of 16,400 acres of various types of habitats, like lagoons, swamps, savannah, and creeks, making it suitable for many types of wildlife to live here. Several endangered species are protected by the sanctuary. As the dry season comes upon Belize, many migrating birds find themselves using the lagoons here as refuge. There are about 330 species that can be found at this reserve. The most well-known bird here is the Jabiru stork, and Belize has the biggest population of these birds in Central America. It is an official protected bird of Belize as of 1973, thanks to all the bird conservation efforts. Crooked Tree offers a birding boat tour to birders of all experience levels. Among some of the great birds to be seen here are the Wood Stork, Bare-throated Tiger-Heron, Limpkin, Great Black Hawk, Neotropic Cormorant, and the Boat-billed Heron. You may notice that many birds here are waterbirds that enjoy the water habitat, which makes this a great place to see them in abundance. Owen visited this wildlife sanctuary in January 2020.

© Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary

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Birds found here

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  American Pygmy Kingfisher

  
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  Snail Kite

  
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  Rufous-Tailed Hummingbird

  
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  Limpkin

  
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  Boat-billed Heron