TIDE Reports Success in Yellow-Headed Parrot Conservation Efforts

TIDE’s Terrestrial Protected Areas Manager, Mario Muschamp, has reported some successes in their program to boost the population of the now-endangered yellow-headed parrot.  According to the report, the 2023 nesting season was good with eleven at-risk chicks extracted and taken to the Belize Bird Rescue where they will spend eight months before returning to TIDE.  Additionally, sixteen chicks fledged naturally and has added to the growing local population of Yellow headed parrots.  According to Muschamp, come 2024, they will be carrying out both transect and roost count surveys, in order to get better grasp on the number of birds in the Payne’s Creek National Park in southern Belize. For over a decade, Mario has been a key figure in TIDE’s efforts to help increase numbers of the endangered yellow-headed parrots within Payne’s Creek and Belize. Yellow-headed parrots have been suffering from poaching (for the illegal pet trade) regionally, bringing their numbers down from an estimated 70,000 to just 7,000 in the last two decades. Muschamp says they are now considering ways through which we can have a more active, preferably 24 hour, presence along the access road into the PA (Protected Area).