A community managed Scarlet Macaw monitoring program was established in the village of Red Bank, a PfB Wings of the America’s community-based bird conservation program, located in southern Belize. This monitoring program is centered on gathering baseline data on the arrival, movement and behaviors of the Scarlet Macaws. The data indicates that the Scarlet Macaw commence scouting the area around mid-November of any given year, arrive in Red Bank Village around the end of December, and depart from the area by early April of the following year. This information has helped plan protection activities and schedule avi-tourism activities focused on the Scarlet Macaws.
Further studies were also carried out on the fruiting penology of the food sources of the Scarlet Macaw. The findings of this study showed that while there were abundant fruiting trees, past fires have destroyed a significant quantity of fruiting trees in some of the locations that the Scarlet Macaw frequent annually. Due to less fruit production this year, the Scarlet Macaws did not stay close to the village of Red Bank. Determined bird watchers had to hike for about an hour to see this charismatic bird species.
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