A story of two small White-winged doves

A few days ago a pair of new birds appeared here.

Maggie and Patsy two small White-winged doves

Let us introduce you these beautiful White-winged doves Maggie and Patsy.

We all have our life stories. So let us share with you DOVE STORY as it started when found:

Day 1: Maggie and Patsy were found in Corozal. Most likely they had fallen out of the nest, but luckily, a wonderful lady called Melinda lives close by and spotted them. Otherwise, a predator might have seen them any minute or they might have simply died from hunger and thirst. How great that there are some awesome people still here!

Melinda took some pictures and called Belize Bird Rescue [610 0400] for help. Nikki, always ready to answer any kind of question regarding our flying friends, picked up her phone and arranged with her friend Colleen in Corozal to collect them from Melinda and put them on the next available Tropic Air flight. Thank you Melinda and Colleen for contacting us and collecting them!

Melinda's initial photo of two small White-winged doves

Day 2: The journey to Belize Bird Rescue was a bit of an adventure! Keep in mind that Corozal is almost 200 km away from us and the only flights departing go to San Pedro - an island 150 km from us! Colleen and Melinda carefully packed the doves in a cardboard box with holes for breathing and handed it over to the Corozal Tropic Air staff. The doves had their first chance to fly -- well, this time by aeroplane ;) -- across the Belize Barrier Reef to San Pedro, and from there a second flight back across the Caribbean Sea to Belize City. This airline often flies birds for BBR without fee! Thank you Tropic Air! At the Belize City airport, Gordon and Gillian, our long-term cooperators and friends from Belize Animal Rescue, picked them up and sheltered them for few hours. Finally, for the last eighty kilometers, one of our volunteers from BBR drove to Belize City and back to BBR with the birds. We are strategically placed in the middle of the country, just next to Belmopan (capital city). So here they are:

Off they go into the BBR clinic, with Nikki in the front line...and the second line...ok, ok...she went there on her own ;). She handled them with TLC, weighed them, took their temperature, check their excrement for bacteria, and fed them well. Granted, they drunk only water at the beginning, but later partook in much more of a delicatesy: a mixture of parrot baby food and cat food.

Patsy has a bit of a limp. It seems like her fall out of the nest was rougher than Maggie’s. Let's wait as she gets stronger.

Day 3: Maggie and Patsy have been with us for two days now and so far, they are doing very well. Although, still in quarantine, both gained some wieght, about 7g each, and looked more relaxed. It seems they will make it. But we have to wait. The first few days are crucial to any rescued bird’s survival. Stay tuned as we will send more news shortly.

As you can see, we are taking this really seriously.

What will happen next? Well, after the small carrier they were put into at BBR, they’ll be moved into a bigger enclosure. They will stay with us for approximately one month until they are feeding well and strong enough to escape predators after release, then we will release them back to nature probably in the same place they had been found. So we hope it would be another success story!