Injured Baby Flamingo Found in Belize Faces Grim Prognosis Due to Severe Injuries

Tonight, an injured baby flamingo found in Belize has a not so good prognosis after suffering a broken wing and hip. The young bird, not native to Belize, was found near mile 4 on the George Price Highway yesterday by a young girl.  According to experts, they believe that the bird was injuring during its migration. The baby flamingo was taken to a veterinary hospital and then handed over to the Belize Bird Rescue Center for further treatment. Unfortunately, however, the young bird may not survive due to the extent of its injuries that may prevent it from walking again. Our newsroom spoke with Anya Perez, the 12-year-old who found the bird on her way to bible study. 

Anya Perez, Baby Flamingo Rescuer: “I told my parents like “Stop the car !” and so we turned around and we went to the flamingo what we actually thought was a pelican and we were so amazed because it was such an incredible experience and we really wanted to head to bible study so we put it to a safe spot util we can come back and when we arrived we picked it up and we could tell that it’s wing was broken so we tried to be really careful and then we tried to give it some water not to force it but we put water there and it actually ended up drinking which was really good and in the morning we noticed that it wasn’t moving it’s leg so it might have fractured it’s leg and in the morning we brought it to the vet so it can have a checkup, have an x ray, see what’s alright. We contacted the Belize Bird Rescue Center and we told them that and everyone was just so amazed. So they told us to meet at the vet and we got a check up there for the flamingo and he actually broke his wing right beside his joint so it might be really difficult for him to heal he may even may never fly again which is really sad. And we left it there so the Belize Bird Rescue Center can pick it up and we were getting messages we just wanted to learn more about this flamingo and we also heard that it broke it’s hip on the same side of its wing. So we don’t know how it happened but I think when we found it it also happened really soon when we saw it. We don’t know if it’s going to survive or not.”

According to one Belize birding book, the last known sighting of a flamingo in Belize was back in 2001.