Common Birds of Belize

Belize's national bird — the outrageous rainbow bill makes it unmistakable; Chan Chich Lodge and Lamanai are excellent sites for close encounters.

Crooked Tree hosts one of Central America's most accessible Jabiru nesting colonies — the storks congregate in extraordinary numbers during the dry season.

Belize's Chiquibul Forest holds the largest Scarlet Macaw nesting population in Central America — pairs flying to nest trees at dawn are spectacularly beautiful.

One of the world's most spectacular birds, with iridescent blue and bronze eye-spots — displayed by males at Maya ruin sites at dawn in March.

Arguably the most beautiful heron in the Americas — chestnut and blue-green with lanceolate breeding plumes, it hunts fish in quiet forest streams.

With its racquet-tipped tail that pendulums hypnotically, the motmot is Belize's most charismatic forest bird, often seen perching quietly in shaded glades.

A specialist that feeds almost exclusively on apple snails, the Snail Kite has a strongly hooked bill perfectly adapted to extracting snails from their shells.

A secretive, rail-like bird that swims low in the water along shaded forest rivers — best found paddling quietly by canoe along the New River to Lamanai.