The importance of species conservation around the world has become impossible to deny. The following four birds share two things in common: they can all be found in Belize (and a variety of other areas in Latin America), and they all have declining populations, in part because they face the threat of habitat loss due to excessive deforestation.

1. Keel-billed Motmot (Electron carinatum)

Coraciiformes | Momotidae

• Status: Vulnerable
• Range: Belize; Costa Rica; Guatemala; Honduras; Nicaragua
• Average size: 12 in
• Preferred habitat: Subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests; subtropical or tropical moist montane forests
• Threats: Habitat loss due to deforestation

2. Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata)

Galliformes | Phasianidae

• Status: Near Threatened
• Range: Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico; west-central Belize; northern Guatemala
• Size: 39 in
• Preferred habitat: Non-flooded mature forest
• Threats: Hunting

3. Great Curassow (Crax rubra)

Galliformes | Cracidae

• Status: Vulnerable
• Range: Eastern Mexico; throughout Central America; western Colombia; northwest Ecuador
• Size: 31–39 in
• Preferred habitat: Humid evergreen forest, mangroves
• Threats: Hunting; habitat loss due to deforestation

4. Orange-breasted Falcon (Falco deiroleucus)

Falconiformes | Falconidae

• Status: Near Threatened
• Range: Throughout most of Latin America from southern Mexico to northern Argentina
• Size: 14–16 in
• Preferred habitat: Lowland forest, savanna edges, subtropical mountain slopes
• Threats: Habitat loss due to deforestation

You can visit the Belize Audubon Society website to learn about some of the activities underway to protect the environment of these and many other species in Belize.