Crooked Tree Wild Life Sanctuary

What will be foremost in your memory? For my husband, Wil, I know it is the Vermilion Flycatcher. We had seen this species before in Belize, but never in such numbers. We sat and watched them flit and flutter and sit on the wire fence next to us. They weren't just scarlet, they radiated their color. We saw them all around the town of Crooked Tree, but we had a favorite spot that we returned to again and again, to sit and watch as they spread their magic.

My most indelible memory is of going down the river to a spot where there was a Bare-Throated tiger heron. There, about 12 feet above us stood the parent, 3 feet from it's nest of chicks. All were as motionless as a photo in National Geographic. One chick's neck was stretched 15" above it's nest. "How could any chick's neck be so long," I asked myself? But there it was, all downy and spikey and stretched to the limit. Beside it another head was sticking up, but not so far. We watched in amazement and fascination, but finally it was time to drift on down the river.

Out on the lagoon we saw 200 wood storks feeding on tiny fish as they moved en masse across the shallow water. We saw the awesome jabiru and in the distance the rosy glow of the roseate spoonbill.

Everywhere we turned there were more birds to behold. The elusive agame heron, the red-lored parrot, and the grooved-billed ani. Everyone should go to Crooked Tree.

$125 US per person includes: early morning flight to Belize City * ground transportation * morning tour at Crooked Tree Sanctuary * afternoon tour at Crooked Tree * Return flight

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