Ecotourism
Searching for Macaws in Belize (ARA Spring 2000)

by Rebecca Singer

There are five stoplights in Belize: four in Belize City; but the fifth is a mystery. Their White House is the size of a moderate American home, and the picture of Queen Elizabeth on the paper money is highly outdated.

But your trip in on Mayan or Tropic Airlines to Placencia, a peninsula in the Stann Creek District of Belize is not to see the usual tourist sites. You've ridden these lawn-mower-powered machines and endured the freeform schedules to see macaws.

From the "Singing Sands," a beautiful resort on the northern half of Placencia, the red clay "highway" takes you to Red Bank, where macaws visit yearly. This road passes through a natural pine forest and the fishing village of Riverdale. Red Bank is a Mayan village of 700 at the edge of a second growth rainforest. Up to 150 macaws have been seen here during their yearly visits between late December and mid-March.

They arrive to feed on fruits, then move to the river to feed on mountain trumpet and the guamwood tree. There is no apparent or known clay lick in the area. The macaws usually fly in from the west and have been spotted in Las Cuebas in November, prior to arriving at Red Bank.

Our guide, Athonansio Salam, a member of the village council, helped to form the Scarlet Macaw Conservation Group. Nine guides were chosen from the village but only two continue to study and guide because the tourism does not yet economically support all nine.

Athonansio remembers the old growth forest being burned; that was 13 years ago. He also remembers seeing macaws as a child and asking his father what the birds were carrying on their backs. He thought they were carrying ribbons. His father explained to him that those were the tail feathers of the macaws!

This guide's theory is that the macaws send scouts to Red Bank to see if the fruits are ripe. Each year he sees a small group of birds arrive before the others. This year, however, only 14 macaws were seen at Red Bank. Perhaps this is due to the unusually cold weather that has prevented the fruits from ripening.
UPDATE 4/15/00 - A total of 85 macaws were spotted in mid-March 2000, down from the normal count of 150 macaws at Red Bank.

On our easy "hike" through the rainforest, we saw leaf-cutter ants, migratory gray catbirds, hummingbirds, butterflies, a king vulture, and small parrots. We became familiar with the Cahune tree, which produces nuts that squirrels eat. (Our guide said he had never seen a macaw feeding on these nuts.) We encountered the gippyjapper tree, from which baskets are woven, as well as the plant "hot lips," which looks like it sounds, and the polyredhead tree, which is a cure for fungus.

We heard, but unfortunately did not see, macaws on this adventure, even though we watched for them both in the rainforest and at the river.

Upon returning to the village, where we shared the rice, cocoa, beans, and delicious corn tortillas of the local people, we found a group of 20 Mayans gathered in a store to watch a video on macaws made by Richard Foster. The video showed pictures of the bird in its natural habitat. The entire community was represented in this gathering, including elders, men and women, teenagers, children and babies. The community is learning that the macaws are to be saved, as is the rainforest.

Instead of hunting the bird for food, the Mayans at Red Bank are learning they have a treasure in their environment that will attract tourists. The Quiche and Mopan Mayans can make money by taking care of the rainforest and the macaws.

It is quite encouraging to see the eyes of the children transfixed on the video while learning that their small spot on the planet has something of great value to the whole planet.

Hills are the home of the scarlet macaws in Belize from December 25 through March 15