The 2022 Scarlet Macaw nesting season has ended with much success in the Chiquibul, thanks to a total of 13 volunteers that assisted in biomonitoring and the arduous work of the FCD Research Unit. By the end of the season, in September, a total of 24 macaws made it to the wild. With a population of approximately 350 individual parrots found in Belize, these young macaws will improve the natural population.

The Scarlet Macaw (Ara macao cyanoptera), representing Belize’s largest parrot species, is locally endangered primarily due to wildlife trafficking and habitat loss. It is listed as a species of high conservation concern in the Wildlife Protection Act of Belize. The Chiquibul Forest is the key foraging and breeding habitat for the species in Belize, as a result FCD has systematically been documenting and conducting biological monitoring of the species for more than eight years. The conservation effort this year was made possible with the financial support from the Protected Areas Conservation Trust, Nature Trust of the Americas, Harvest Caye Conservation Foundation, US Department of the Interior, US Fish and Wildlife Service and Fortis Belize Limited.