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Florida is known as the Sunshine State. Exotic species are animals that did not historically occur in Florida. Most were introduced, meaning they were brought to Florida by humans. However, captive-reared mallards are being unlawfully released by humans in large numbers in Florida.
A friend of mine told me, she has been seeing small groups of Swallow-tailed Kites ( Elanoides furficatus ) in the general area; in south Florida. At one of the biggest migration roost in Florida, not far from where we live, kites begin to gather by mid June. Swallow-tailed Kite near the Lake Okeechobee roost in Florida.
home about advertise archives birds conservation contact galleries links reviews subscribe Browse: Home / Birds / The plovers of Estero Lagoon, Florida The plovers of Estero Lagoon, Florida By James • March 8, 2011 • 1 comment Tweet Share For as long as I can remember I’ve been fascinated by shorebirds.
Cloud, Florida, Doug, with whom I had been birding all day long, found a Yellow-throated Warbler foraging behind us. The Yellow-throated Warbler is a wood-warbler that breeds almost exclusively in the southeastern United States. They winter in Florida, the Caribbean, Mexico, and Central America.
Platalea ajaja is a marvelous bird and I was delighted to make its acquaintance - for only the second time in my life – at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge’s Black Point Drive when I was attending the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in January.
Fish and Wildlife Service is down-listing the wood stork from endangered to threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The wood stork was listed as endangered in 1984, because the Florida population was dropping at an approximate rate of 5 percent per year. The wood stork occurs and breeds in Central and South America.
Having now visited Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge in January this New Yorker will never have that problem again. I had only been in Florida for about fourteen hours when a herd – yes, a herd, not a flock* – of American Avocets was foraging its way across the shallow water in front of me.
While at the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival I could not resist making the drive north to Daytona Beach one day to witness the awesome gull fly-in from the dump to the beach. In winter, Laughing Gulls should have black legs and bill and in alternate, or breeding plumage, those parts, while staying dark, get a nice deep red color.
I challenge that false notion and welcome those to visit Anhinga Trail in late winter and see one of the great wildlife spectacles of Florida. Regardless, it is still freshwater wetland birding in Florida at its best.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe today announced as part of Great Outdoors Month the agency is proposing to expand fishing and hunting opportunities on 21 refuges throughout the National Wildlife Refuge System. National wildlife refuges provide premier outdoor recreational opportunities across the Nation.
The invasive Burmese Python ( Python molurus ) is well established in the Florida Everglade. Another species of Python, the African Python ( Python sebae ) has established a small population in the 2,877-acre Bird Drive Area (BDA) in South Florida. The impact that pythons are having on native wildlife is not well understood.
Back in March, in Southwestern Florida, my husband (non-birder and good sport) and I drove to Big Cypress National Preserve. A Palm Warbler , in breeding plumage, hopped onto the end of our table. I don’t like to encourage wildlife to beg for food and I decided to ignore it. We traveled along Alligator Alley.
He now wakes up to the choruses of Northern Cardinals and Northern Mockingbirds in sunny Vero Beach, Florida. This photo could have been taken in Florida’s Treasure Coast during the winter months or in South America during the same period. Please report banded and flagged birds to the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Living in Northern California offers nature lovers many opportunities to view wildlife in there native habitat. Most of the Osprey breeding in North America are migratory, only Florida, the Caribbean and Baja California host non-migratory breeders 1. Click on photos for full sized images.
Southern Florida offers many unique wintering birds, but perhaps none more so then the sparrows that call different parts of Florida their winter homes. Tom Dunkerton tipped me off to an area on the Black Merritt National Wildlife Refuge where some of my target birds can be seen. There are always good birds to be found.
In fact, prior to my visit to Florida in January for the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival, I had never seen an Anhinga at all save one lousy look in Honduras back in 2009. And their plumage, especially their breeding finery, is a sight to see. In fact, he pointed out the exact same bird as the bird below.
Florida Caverns State Park is known for one, quite obvious thing: the caverns. This fall, I stopped at Florida Caverns with two friends who had never visited before. This tiny species breeds north of Florida but returns to spend the winter here as well as in Central and South America. A Black-and-white Warbler.
You find them in the south from Florida to Texas and down into Mexico, occasionally as far north as the Carolinas in the east and up the Mississippi River as far north as Illinois. … 10,000 Birds is a Scrub Jay-level sponsor of the 15th Annual Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. Mottled Ducks. ……… a.
Pelee National Park – Ohio Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge – Texas These locations offer a variety of habitats including marshes, wetlands, forests, coastal areas, and deserts, attracting numerous bird species throughout the year. Please note that the availability of specific bird species may vary depending on the season.
Well, when I got the text I had just returned to my hotel room in Titusville, Florida, after a full morning birding Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge during the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival. They do breed in Florida, after all, even if they are exceedingly rare in winter. … a.
Oil begins to wash up on the beaches throughout May and June of 2010 May 6, 2010 Oil washes ashore on the Chandeleur Islands off the Louisiana coast, an important nesting and breeding area for many bird species. June 2, 2010 BP apparently bans workers from showing dead or dying wildlife and from talking to the press.
Many species had left for breeding in more northerly climates, and those that remained hid out in cool spots until saner temperatures reigned in the morning and evening. Lower Suwanee River National Wildlife Refuge. We both added avian species to our year lists, and honestly just had a great time exploring coastal Florida.
I think a lot of people know that climate change is not a positive thing, but do they know whats in it for wildlife? The EPA speculates that there will be a global sea level rise of 2 feet from the current sea level by the year 2100, which will have huge impacts on our coastlines for both people and wildlife. Whats in it for birds?
While on a tour of Rookery Bay near the Florida Everglades, I was reminded of this lovely personality trait once more. Unlike many other estuaries in this part of Florida, Rookery Bay is protected by the Estuarine Research Reserve system, and remains almost entirely undeveloped.
First off, Audubon of Florida reports that counts indicate more Roseate Spoonbills are nesting in Florida Bay (between the mainland and the Keys) this year than last year, although those numbers are still lower than in the last decade. The hope is that their presence while inspire the grown-ups to breeding success.
bike commutes, Natural Encounters describes other Beehler forays — as far south as the renowned “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge in Florida, where you can see enough Roseate Spoonbills to give you an ice-cream headache, and as far north as less well-known locales in northern New Hampshire and elsewhere.
Fish and Wildlife Service has listed the “Rufa” population of Red Knot ( Calidris canutus rufa ) as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The other sub-species, Calidris canutus roselaari , migrates along the Pacific Coast and breeds in Alaska and the Wrangel Island in Russia. Red Knot in non-breeding plumage.
The epicenter of large, charismatic, and often photogenic, fish-eating birds is in Florida, at places like Everglades National Park and Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, the only site in the park system that could convincingly be named for an exotic dancer. Who knew?). Is there a more elegant heron in the entire world?
These are extremely large stick structures (some articles compare the largest ones to the size of a car) that are usually populated by multiple breeding pairs in separate chambers. Florida’s Introduced Birds: Monk Parakeet (Myiopsitta monachus). Monk Parakeet is the only parrot species that builds its own nest. and Sam Logue.
January – Starting Off and Florida. I went to the Space Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival in Titusville, Florida. It was my first Florida birding so I had quite a few easy birds to check out and check off my ABA life list. Florida Scrub Jay ? May – Migration’s Peak and Breeding Begins.
This spurred her to pursue a career in environmental education and wildlife nature tourism as a park ranger in Texas and as the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail Coordinator with Florida Fish and Wildlife. About half of all breeding Wandering Albatross nest on the Prince Edward Islands.
Birders are familiar with the National Wildlife Refuge System, which consists of more than 550 units distributed through all fifty states. National Wildlife Refuges (NWRs), which are managed by the U.S. Ding” Darling NWR in Florida. FWS calls WPAs the “Prairie Jewels of the National Wildlife Refuge System.”.
Jake lives in southern Florida, so he and his friends had to be interested in learning about these birds, which they saw everyday, right? And then I showed them the one photo that was not taken in Florida, an image of baby American Robins in a nest in Central Park. There is nothing as deadly as 15 bored 4-year olds.
The Marbled Godwit ( Limosa fedoa ) in the photo above, shown landing at Fort De Soto County Park in Pinellas County, Florida, is used with permission from my friend Mia McPherson of On The Wing Photography fame. It’s nice to have friends that are excellent wildlife photographers. Click on photos for full sized images.
Corey encountered a bunch of winners, but 24 Common Redpolls at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge, in almost the exact same spot he saw them a couple of years ago, feeding on birch inflorescence by the East Pond, were easily his best birds of the weekend. However, I’ll bestow that honor upon my first local Common Grackles of spring.
The vast majority of Baltimore Orioles that breed in North America return to the tropics between Mexico and northern South America for the cold half of the year. Fish & Wildlife comes in response to a lawsuit brought by the Center for Biological Diversity. Instead I saw a flash of orange. The proposal from U.S.
I see grebes and gallinules all the time, but one can never tire when watching successful breeding birds. Though I’ve now been to Wakulla on a trio of birding trips, I know that when my next visitor arrives I will make a bee-line for my new favorite wildlife-watching destination!
the same few states always come to mind first…Alaska, Arizona, Texas, and Florida. Modoc National Wildlife Refuge, CA. Gull-billed Terns breed in south San Diego Bay, along with Black Skimmers and several other tern species. When one thinks of taking a birdcation somewhere in the U.S., Northeastern California.
This bird spent the 2011-2012 winter at Colusa National Wildlife Refuge in northern California, migrated someplace exotic and distant in February, and returned to the same pond at the beginning of this month. Southern Cassowary with chicks by Duncan Wright Carlos Sanchez was particularly appreciative of a new bird for him in Florida.
I got to see a beautiful female and owlet on a trip to a secret nest location near Howard Prairie Lake (human-made nest structures have enhanced local breeding for these huge owls whose nest success is boosted to 83% on artificial platforms vs. 66% at natural sites). And I can’t forget the awesome birds I saw in Florida in January. (If
The guide covers over 650 species, most of the breeding birds in the United States (minus Hawaii) and Canada (like most guides with ‘North America’ in its title, it does not include Mexico or the Caribbean). Acorn Woodpeckers use both communal and cooperative breeding strategies which vary widely among family groups.
Whooping Crane, Florida. There is a small resident population in Polk County, Florida, in the middle of the peninsula, mostly on protected land, and once in a while they show up in a place where they can be easily observed. Nice to know that some things don’t change! An eBird mystery. I also noted that the U.S.
.” It is a relief to eventually reach the chapter on The Life of Waterfowl, written in a much more conversational style and unashamedly fascinated with waterfowl’s unique breeding behaviors. So–not a fan of hunting. And, neither are most of our 10,000 Birds writers.
Breeding behaviour and plumage was very apparent, but John Wise , an ex-pat Brit now resident in Orlando, told me that the birds’ activities had been held up for a couple of weeks during a cold snap that saw frosts in Florida. There are more at the Orlando, Florida post on Redgannet. Get yours today! The proposal from U.S.
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