Bird in Belize. See rare birds at Hidden Valley Inn,orange breasted falcon

Hidden Valley Inn succesfully releases the first Orange Breasted Falcons in Belize. These rare birds are viewed regularly on this private reserve in the Mountain Pine Ridge.

The Peregrine Fund has been researching the Orange Breasted Falcon in Belize for the past few years and has been trying to start a captive breeding program with the intention of reintroducing the birds into the wild.

Female chicks were all that was required as they already had a population of male birds in captivity in Panama. In 2003, the Peregrine Fund was allowed to take a female bird from the nest at King Vulture Falls, one of the nesting sites on Hidden Valley Inn’s Private Reserve. In 2005 it was decided to try a new approach as so few of the nests were producing chicks. Eggs would be removed from the nests and incubated.

The male birds would then be reintroduced and the female birds would join the breeding program. 3 eggs were collected from King Vulture falls and 3 from another site nearby.

Of the 6 eggs collected, 1 female bird and 2 male birds hatched from the same clutch and 3 were infertile. The female stayed in Panama to join the other birds in the breeding program and the 2 male falcons were brought back to Belize for release.

A hack box was built where the 2 males were kept for about a week being fed quail through a pipe that kept the birds from seeing their feeders.

A blind was set up nearby so that the falcons could be observed without any disturbance. The door to the hack box was opened first thing in the morning and they slowly ventured closer and closer to the door.

They stayed on the hack box platform all that day and when darkness fell, retreated back inside the box! A three days supply of food had been previously placed on the platform so that the birds would not have to be disturbed.

On the second day they left the safety of their hack box and flew to a nearby tree. One bird started flying around immediately and the other sat on his perch and watched for the rest of the day. It was amusing to watch them landing like Woodpeckers on the trunk of a tree! They both found their way back to the hack box to feed and have been returning daily.

Very quickly they learnt to land properly and were play fighting, chasing each other in the air.

They have pursued a few Red-lored Parrots and an Acorn woodpecker and fly more and more each day. They are continually monitored from before dawn until after dark by a very dedicated volunteer who replaces the food on the Hack box before first light so that the birds do not see him. Interestingly enough, both pairs of falcons whose eggs were removed, have successfully recycled and both nests have chicks.

The reintroduction has been a huge success and now the birds will be monitored over the next few years to see whether they find partners and produce chicks of their own. We will keep you updated.

Hidden Valley Inn would like to thank Angel Muela and Martha Curti for their dedication to this project and Angel for the photographs on this page as well as Andrew Plant and Monty Wallace for the many hours that he has given to observing the behavior of the first ever Orange Breasted Falcon release.

For more information about the Orange Breasted Falcon Project, follow the link below: