KarunaNews Story

Catia Lattouf has turned her apartment in Mexico City into a clinic for sick, injured or infant hummingbirds. She began caring for the birds in 2011 after recovering from colon cancer; taking in a bird which had lost an eye and nursing it back to health. Her place is now a makeshift clinic where about 60 hummingbirds currently fly about. Over the past decade she has nursed hundreds of the tiny birds, which can arrive with injuries to wings after collisions or falling from nests, while others have infections from drinking contaminated water. Lattouf, who studied French literature, has become a reference source for bird lovers, amateur and professional alike: Mexico's National Autonomous University even refers cases to her due to a lack of resources. "Nothing is guaranteed," she said. "I believe God gives life and God takes it, but we do everything possible."