Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary - Belize Page 1

Crooked Tree Wildlife Sanctuary is a series of shallow lagoons, creeks and rivers, and includes surrounding savannahs and thickets.  As the dry season progresses, the large lagoons at Crooked Tree dry up, concentrating fish and attracting huge numbers of waterbirds. This is a spectacle of nature.

 

Jabiru and Neotropic Cormorants on 13 March 2013.

 

American White Pelicans

 

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks seen from a boat ride on 13 March 2013

 

American Pygmy Kingfisher on Black Creek. I recommend the boat ride to see waterbirds up close. 13 March 2013.

 

Adult Northern Jacana at Crooked Tree on 13 March 2013

 

Juvenile Northern Jacanas look so different from the adults. 13 March 2013.

 

Snail Kites are numerous on the lagoons where they feed on Apple Snails. Their special bill enables them to get at the soft body inside the shell.

Female Apple Snails usually lay their eggs at night on stakes and emergent vegetation in the lagoons. 13 March 2013.

 

Neotropic Cormorant

 

Gull-billed Tern on 12 March 2013.

 

I enjoyed seeing Pectoral Sandpipers, which are northbound migrants in Belize in early March. When the lagoons dry and mudflats develop in late March and April, huge number of northbound shorebirds refuel at Crooked Tree.

 

Wood Storks and Great Egrets

 

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