Mexico City Apartment Becomes Hummingbird Sanctuary

A Personal Mission to Save Hummingbirds

• 💖 Katya Latou, a 75-year-old woman in Mexico City, runs a hummingbird sanctuary from her apartment bedroom.
• 💡 The sanctuary began in 2012 after Latou cared for an abandoned baby hummingbird named Gucci, finding solace after her husband's death and her cancer diagnosis.
• 🐦 Latou's personal experience with Gucci, who offered comfort during her grief, inspired her to dedicate herself to helping these birds.

Sanctuary Operations and Challenges

• 🏥 Injured hummingbirds are typically brought to the sanctuary by people who find them on the street, where they receive diagnosis and treatment.
• 📈 Factors like extreme heat, heavy rainfall, and predators such as cats and hawks affect the survival rate of the hummingbirds.
• 🍼 A special enclosure is used for injured birds, and a nursery provides hand-feeding every 15 minutes for baby hummingbirds by Latou's assistant, Cecilia.
• 🚀 Once strong enough, the birds are released back into the wild.

Funding and Philosophy

• 📚 The sanctuary operates without donations, financed through proceeds from a book authored by Latou about her experiences as a health coach.
• 🌱 Latou draws a parallel between hummingbirds as pollinators and humans, encouraging people to use their talents to