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A Hummingbird Hospital in a Mexico City Apartment
Catia Lattouf cares for dozens of hummingbirds from her home!
© Lucina Melesio
In Mexico City, 73-year-old Catia Lattouf started a hummingbird hospital — in her apartment! She hosts dozens of hummingbirds as they recover from injuries. Catia, who once ran a French high-fashion boutique, began caring for hummingbirds in 2012, after she survived cancer that was considered terminal. She received her first injured hummingbird, and named him Gucci.
Listen to this episode in Spanish here.
A Hummingbird Hospital in a Mexico City Apartment
BirdNote®
Written by Lucina Melesio
Lucina Melesio: This is BirdNote.
[Sounds from hummingbird hospital]
Lucina Melesio: In Mexico City, 73-year-old Catia Lattouf started a hummingbird hospital… in her apartment.
Catia Lattouf: I have now here// almost six species. // //, I have a small one like a bee, it makes [Bzz] it doesn't fly like a hummingbird, is Mexican…
Lucina Melesio: Bumblebee Hummingbird.
Catia Lattouf: Yeah.
[Sounds from hummingbird hospital]
Lucina Melesio: Either flying across the bedroom to a large window or resting over the dry tree branches Catia carefully placed on the corners, there are more hummingbirds than most people have ever seen together.
Catia Lattouf: Now I have 82, expecting one more.
Lucina Melesio: Catia says people bring her mostly injured baby birds. Larger animals attack them while they’re vulnerable in their nests.
Catia Lattouf: People find them, compassionate people, and they bring them to me.
Lucina Melesio: So how did Catia, who once ran a French high-fashion boutique, start caring for injured hummingbirds? It began in 2012, after she survived cancer that was considered terminal. She received her first injured hummingbird, and named him….Gucci.
Catia Lattouf: Sometimes he was here and I was depressed, he stayed on my shoulder, on my head. "No, Gucci, I don't want to play now. Please leave me alone". And he used to stay in front of me, looking at me like saying, “Pay attention to me.” I didn't understand at the time, until he dies nine months later, and it was a new life written to me, because nine months is the symbol of a new life —when you have a baby, it's nine months.
Lucina Melesio: Catia has tried giving a new life to each one of the hundreds of babies she’s received ever since.
For BirdNote, I’m Lucina Melesio.
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Senior Producer: John Kessler
Producer: Mark Bramhill
Managing Editor: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Conor Gearin
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
Recorded by Kizaya Studios in Mexico City
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote January 2024
Narrator: Lucina Melesio
ID# lattoufc-01-2024-01-05 lattoufc-01
