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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.
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BirdNote®
A Hummingbird Hospital in a Mexico City Apartment
Written by Lucina Melesio
This is BirdNote.
[Sounds from hummingbird hospital]
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]
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.
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.
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.
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: Mark Bramhill
Producer: Sam Johnson
Producer: Kizaya Studios
Managing Producer: Jazzi Johnson
Managing Producer: Ariana Remmel
Content Director: Jonese Franklin
BirdNote’s theme was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.
© 2024 BirdNote January 2024/February 2026
Narrator: Lucina Melesio
ID# lattoufc-01-2024-01-05 lattoufc-01
Lucina Melesio
Writer Narrator