A pelican flying over your head when you’re floating in the salty Caribbean Sea. A walk through a toucan forest on the way to impressive temples in Guatemala. Bright red scarlet macaws gliding by in Honduras. A colony of pastel pink flamingos fluttering their wings in the low water of the Mexican coast. Central America is a true paradise for bird lovers.
And no, you don’t have to be an experienced birdwatcher, equipped with binoculars and patience to sit in the bush for hours, to spot a bird. In truth, it’s hard not to notice them. Hummingbirds mind their own business in flower bushes when you have your morning espresso. Pelicans waddle on a terrace just next to the sunbathers in Caye Caulker. One hummingbird even flew into my scarf when I was listening to our guide in Copán Ruinas, Honduras. So, it’s not that difficult at all.
The only bird that we wanted to see, but couldn’t manage, was the beautiful quetzal, whose picture is printed on Guatemalan banknotes.
Copán Ruinas, the perfect spot to see scarlet macaws
While the options for observing birdlife are endless, one of my favourite bird experiences was definitely the Honduran town Copán Ruinas and its majestic scarlet macaws.
Before seeing these birds in Copán, my relationship with parrots was quite limited. I’d seen little green and yellow ones hopping around the cages in people’s houses and a tiny little blue one flying into our window in Estonia. Apparently, he had escaped from his owner- a lady who lived on the first floor- and flew all the way up to our place on the ninth floor. The poor thing was probably quite confused facing all this freedom and decided that it was better to return to captivity. Little did it know that there was more than one apartment in this district of 100,000 people.
But never before had I seen a gigantic scarlet macaw, who often sits on the shoulders of pirates in adventure movies and screams bad words while the group of men pour rum down their throats. And never could I have imagined that my first encounter with these creatures would happen in a place where I come to see Mayan art and not colourful wildlife.
How to make the most of spotting birds in Copán Ruinas?
The first thing we saw when we entered the Copan Ruinas archaeological site was a group of tourists taking pictures just a step away from the entrance. We couldn’t see any temples yet, which confused us. But soon we discovered what had captured the tourists’ attention- bright red scarlet macaws flew around the treetops.
The scarlet macaws were active in the morning, and just before the park closed. So it’s really worth to take your time in the park. If you don’t feel like walking all day, take a picnic and something to sit on, take a nap or read a book.
For many tourists, Copán Ruinas is a day trip from Antigua, the colonial town of Guatemala. They drive eight hours, spend a couple of hours in a park and then get back on their tour bus. If you have time, we recommend spending more time in Copán Ruinas. Keep in mind that the ruins and birds in Copán are only two of many reasons to visit this charming cobblestoned town.
The Maya and their birds
Even though the birds had hidden from the midday sun, the bird imaginary kept following us. For example, the Maya ball court, where they played their traditional ball game, was full of macaw images. Three huge macaw head sculptures were looking at us from both sides. Some believe that the players tried to hit these with a rubber ball during the ball games. It all felt a bit creepy.
But wait, it gets better. When we looked up, we saw enormous sculpted macaws that seemed to ready to land on the court. What was this whole obsession with scarlet macaws? It looked like the bird was a god for people in Copán. Later it turned out I was not so wrong after all. The macaw represented a powerful god and sun for the Maya, and here in Copán, they were much more present than in other Maya sites.
Birds in Copán or screaming children in Antwerp?
At the end of the day, we got tired. We lay down on our sarong and closed our eyes. There were not so many people left on the green grass between the temples. Only one guy with a gigantic lens was preparing for the golden hour, or maybe he knew what was going to happen next?
We had no idea of course. But the moment I had closed my eyes, they popped open again. A loud noise almost made me wince. What was that?
Soon I found the source of the sound. A gigantic feathery beauty sat on a branch of a tree and tried to communicate something in his annoyingly squeaky voice. Soon his friends joined, and the chorus of bird noises resembled weekday mornings in our Antwerp apartment when the family of five children downstairs had loud arguments and the children let out inhuman squeals.
During moments like these, I could hardly believe that this here was our life. That I could feel the grass under my bare feet and hear the big birds’ wings flap in the sky. When they spread their wings to fly, we saw that they were not only red. Scarlet macaws plumage had also patches of bright blue and yellow in. Together with the beautifully carved sculptures, this was my favourite moment of the visit to the archaeological park.
Next stop: Macaw Mountain
Sipping German craft beer in a small brewery later that evening, we planned our next day. Having been impressed by the birds in the Copán Ruinas archaeological site, we could not possibly skip the Macaw Mountain bird park, located just 2,5km from Copán Ruinas.
In the middle of the jungle, we found huge cages filled with tropical birds. When I say cage, I don’t mean the little box that people hang from their ceiling to keep birds. No, these were spacious areas covered with nets, where birds had enough space to fly.
We admired different species of toucans, motmots, parrots, kingfishers and orioles, their plumage painted with the brightest possible colours. Forget grey and black, think about yellow, orange, poison green instead. Just when we had pointed out our favourite, we saw the next bird and had to change our minds. It was loud here as well. It felt like every bird wanted to implement its voice to the ever-sounding noisy chorus.
What was so fascinating about this place was that these colourful beauties were here not just for enjoyment. Macaw Mountain is a rescue centre that offers a home for unwanted or abandoned pets, and for the victims of illegal animal trafficking. The centre’s purpose is to teach the pets to survive in the wild. The ones who are too used to having a human company will never be released. They welcome visitors and talk to them in the encounter centre. They are also happy to sit on your head and pose for pictures.
The scarlet macaw as a part of an island life dream
Macaw Mountain Bird Reserve actually began on Bay Island Roatan. Many foreigners who arrived on the island with a plan to stay decided to get a scarlet macaw. But not all of them stayed on the island forever. When they had had enough of the island life, they left, leaving their beautiful birds behind.
An American lady called Mandy Wagner started to take care of the left-behind birds in the 80s. In the middle of 1990, she already had 30 birds. Finally, the kind lady returned home as well, and the birds found a new home with Lloyd Davidson. Thanks to an influx of ex-pats, his collection grew to 80 birds. Taking care of that big army of birds required time and money. So he decided to start the first bird park in Roatan. He was hoping that tourists and cruise ship travellers would bring in enough money to manage the centre. After five years, it finally started to pay the bills. The “Birdman” learned a lot about the diet of scarlet macaws, their interactions and nestling behaviour. He witnessed the first babies hatch, grow up, and learn to fly. But then it was time for a change.
Flight with 90 birds on board
During his visit to Copán Ruinas, Davidson realised that it was a perfect environment for birds. So he decided to build here a new park for birds in Copán. In 2001, a charter plane with 90 scarlet macaws on board landed on a dirt strip just across the Guatemalan border.
Fast forward almost a decade, and all the birds have happily settled in their new home. Taking a walk around the park is really recommended for anyone who loves one of the two: colours or wildlife. You’ll discover stuff you’d no idea about. For example, did you know that a toucan’s peak is lime green with dashes of orange, Bordeaux red and light blue? Or that some of the poison green birds have red tufts on the top of their head and pink-black striped patterns around their eyes. The colour combinations are never-ending and surprising.
So is the behaviour of our feathered friends. You can spend hours observing their curiosity, their interactions with one another and, of course, their excitement when the food bowls are filled. If you love animals, you can easily spend the whole day at Macaw Mountain.
Their happy chatter and tiny quarrels are fun to see, but there are also birds in Copán that have heartbreaking stories.
Stressed mum
Macaw park is home to a pair of blue and gold Macaws. A Mexican lady who took care of them brought them to the park hoping that a natural environment would help them to reproduce. They were a funny couple, a healthy and beautiful male and a stressed female who was also a compulsive feather picker. Luckily, the female soon laid two sets of eggs. Sadly, the stressed female broke them all before they could hatch.
Two years later, she laid new eggs. They hatched but the mum killed all the chicks. When she deposited one more egg, the workers decided to save it and placed it under a nesting scarlet macaw. But the scarlet macaw was not fooled so easily. She hatched and fed it for a month but then, as soon as the baby started to turn blue, she rejected it. So the workers took over and hand-fed it.
The blue and gold Macaw hatched and fed two chicks. That was great news. The stressed female made significant progress and didn’t kill them. But after two months, she started to pick her babies’ feathers where she picked her own, and the workers had to once again hand-feed the chicks until they could eat by themselves.
Macaw Mountain doesn’t only take care of unwanted birds but also educates people about how to take care of such birds. To keep them happy and healthy, they need a lot of space and a proper diet. Also, the centre releases the birds who are ready to live in the wilderness.
Why it’s not good to take forest down
As much as politicians love to talk about the economic reasons for logging a forest, it makes the life of tropical birds like parrots a nightmare. When parrots lose their home, they have to find new food resources and places to make their nests. Birds have to find a new habitat which is often already another flock’s home. This results in a destruction of the fine balance, famine, and in the end, birds stop breeding.
“When habitats are disturbed the macaws are the first parrots to become extinct,” says British parrot expert Rosemary Low in The Complete Book of Macaws. In addition to destruction to their habitation, people hunt parrots for food and plumage in some regions. Some farmers kill parrots because they believe that the birds threaten their crops.
The Maya: crazy about birds
Just like us, ancient Mayas loved the beauty of tropical birds. The kept birds as pets, hunted them for food and feathers. They even used bird symbols in their hieroglyphs. It’s possible that they also utilised birds for medical reasons. Contemporary Tzeltal Maya, for example, use hummingbird eggs for hernias and black vulture flesh to treat malaria.
The Maya decorated their costumes with bird feathers. And not only because the colours were so bright and pretty and because feathers signified wealth. Also because birds played an important role in Mayan cosmology. They were the only creatures who could move between two worlds: the sky where gods lived and the land where the corn people, the Maya, worked.
Mayan artists depicted their principal deity often as a bird. Birds were sacred creatures and sacrificed in ceremonies. The Maya’s craziness about birds even got so far that some of the rulers decided to adopt a bird name. And, as mentioned, they loved to decorate their costumes with feathers.
The ultra-long tail feathers of the quetzal were one of their favourites. They also used it as a currency. If you managed to catch the emerald beauty, you had to pluck the precious feathers from a live bird, or else you’d end up dead. Yes, killing this bird cost life. Sad that the punishments for destroying nature are not as harsh anymore.
But the quetzal was not the only bird who had pretty enough plumage to make a costume out of it. Maya also used vulture, owl and macaw feathers to decorate their headpieces.
BIRDS IN COPÁN RUINAS: PRACTICAL
Watch scarlet macaws fly over the ancient ruins
If you don’t have that much time, or your interest to birds hasn’t skyrocketed after reading this post, then your best option is to visit the famous ruins in Copán Archeological Site.
Admission: 15 USD
Guide (90 minutes): 27 USD
Take the guide if it’s your first visit to Mayan ruins, or you’re curious to know more about the ancient civilisation and Honduras. The guide can point out interesting details your own eye wouldn’t find.
Opening times: 8am-4pm
When to go?
Even though the guidebooks recommend to be the first in to beat the tour groups, I would say you can sleep in and visit the place in the afternoon. Morning is the time when all the tourist buses arrive. The last couple of hours in the park are basically yours.
How to get there?
Since it’s very close to the city centre, you can walk.
More info
You can also visit the sculpture museum at an additional cost, as well as the tunnels, which we heard are not worth it. Guys with cowboy hats offer horseback riding tours. We heard that they drink way too much tequila to handle a horse, so we booked our horseback riding tour with ViaVia instead.
Macaw Mountain
A lush bird park in the middle of the jungle where you can spend the whole day admiring the bright colours, learning the difference between parrotlets, parakeets, parrots and macaws, and watch their funny interactions.
Admission: 10 USD
Opening times: 8am-4pm.
How to get there?
Macaw Mountain is located 2 km from Copán Ruinas. You can walk or take a tuk-tuk.
More info
You can take pictures with birds after 1 pm. There’s also a small pool. Bring a swimsuit if you’d like to take a dip.
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