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Miami, Florida has a reputation among the birding community for being overrun with exotic bird species. One of the more unusual additions to our local avifauna is the Common Hill Myna (not to be confused with Common Myna, a parking lot obligate in Miami), a popular bird in the pet trade due to its ability to mimic human speech.
For many in the birding community, Miami is a destination meant only for ticking off ABA-countable exotics such as Spot-breasted Oriole or Red-whiskered Bulbul. We recorded 17 Short-tailed Hawks this past weekend, a winter specialty in Miami-Dade. Song Sparrow is a genuine rarity in Miami-Dade. This bird was a life bird for him!
Today, if you want to see parrots in the USA you need look no further than Miami. Nearly 70 species of parrots have been recorded flying free at some stage or another in Miami, including Hyacinth Macaws. Dozens of other introduced bird species, largely escapees from pet owners, now call Miami home. There has to a logical reason.
Parking lots in Miami-Dade county offer a mostly standard assortment of birds compared to the rest of the United States. Every year, I look forward to their arrival in early April when they populate every parking lot in Miami from Key Biscayne to Krome Avenue. Like many tyrant flycatchers, they have a distinct dawn song.
The burgeoning number of waders in the fall reminds locals that many herons and egrets disperse northward during the late spring and early summer to breed and feed, returning in the late summer and fall to seek refuge from the oncoming cold and lack of food. Why do Lark Sparrows always show up in September in Miami and then vanish?
” Some exotic bird species such as Red-whiskered Bulbul and Spot-breasted Oriole have been ABA-countable for decades, managing to maintain very small breeding populations despite the impacts of hurricanes and changes in landscaping.
Sure, Miami and the Florida Keys do not boast any endemics ( ‘Cape Sable’ Seaside Sparrow is close) at the species level. Magnolia Warbler is an annual winter resident in small numbers in Miami-Dade, FL. . However, few realize how unique and how good the birding can be here.
First recorded in Florida in 1949, it has been gracing the mature yards and suburban parks of Palm Beach, Broward, and Miami-Dade counties for several decades, although it has recently experienced significant declines in its population perhaps due to Hurricane Wilma in October 2005 and the severe winter cold of 2010.
However, the bulk of the population breeds in Miami-Dade and Monroe counties at the southern tip of the state, particularly around the mangrove fringed coasts and islets of Florida and Biscayne Bay. It might be a recent colonist from the Caribbean, as it was only first found breeding in Florida in 1942.
According to the Florida Breeding Bird Atlas, the first confirmed breeding record was in Miami in July of 1938. Significant amounts of habitat along Krome Avenue in western Miami-Dade as well as Everglades National Park remain, but even the colonies present at Anhinga Trail and Eco Pond have disappeared — a true mystery.
Are they breeding? Miami and Los Angeles were also major importation hubs, and populations of Aratinga mitrata are well established in those areas. But the greatest mystery of the Mitred Parakeets of New York is where they go during the breeding season, and whether they are breeding. What, you may ask? How many are there?
For example, flocks of White-winged Parakeets around Miami International Airport now also contain an increasing proportion of Yellow-chevroned Parakeets — this was not true a few years ago. Furthermore, this little parrot has another aspect going for it. Furthermore, this little parrot has another aspect going for it.
Carlos Sanchez is an excellent birder, a Miami resident, and a polyglot. Matheson to preserve the wild and natural beauty of the area , this venerable park is the oldest in Miami-Dade County. It even contains, dare I say, a little bit of history (by Miami standards, anyways) in the form of structures and old walls made of coral.
Carlos Sanchez is an excellent birder, a Miami resident, and a polyglot. Over twenty species of wood-warbler may be recorded in a single winter in Miami-Dade County, with several more species recorded regularly in Monroe and Broward. During the winter, southeast Florida becomes the wood-warbler capital of the ABA area.
It was a real pleasure to have a friend and colleague, Simon, accompany me on a visit to Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park in Miami this week. Perhaps familiarity really does breed contempt. His good company was surpassed only by his keen eye that picked out a Mangrove Cuckoo lifer for me and a roosting Common Nighthawk.
However, in southeast Florida where there is no other native, frugivorous pigeon, this species also inhabits and breeds at inland locations such as Kendall Indian Hammocks which is over ten miles inland. If you hear a loud wing-clapping noise while hiking a trail, you likely just scared off your life White-crowned Pigeon.
Although many South Florida specialties can be seen throughout the year such as White-crowned Pigeon and Snail Kite , most visiting birders decide to come in the months of April and May in search of summer migrants or secretive birds that only vocalize during the breeding season.
A pair of Spot-breasted Orioles were a welcome sighting, having personally lead many clients to their life Spot-breasted Oriole in Miami for their ABA list but having never seen one in their original range. The experience of seeing a pair feeding and calling in the mountains of Honduras felt like a much more genuine birding experience to me.
However, this brief burst of activity sets the tone for the rest of the birding day in the Everglades or southern Miami-Dade as how can one not be impressed by the shear number and variety of wetland birds as a birder? In fact, I found a Smooth-billed Ani here in 2010 while watching the busy commotion happening in reverse at dusk!
On my recent short family vacation to Miami, I was granted a single day to get out and really bird like a madman. We immediately headed to an undisclosed location where Carlos had breeding Mangrove Cuckoos staked out. Can you believe that a New Yorker could travel all the way to Miami and not be treated to breakfast?
In the 70s, with the survival of the species in jeopardy, the entire wild population was captured and brought into a captive breeding program in southern California. Turkey Vulture on Little Miami River – Kelly Riccetti, The Red and the Peanut. The California Condor has a story well-known by anyone with an interest in birds.
The material on habitat tells us that sometimes looking for odonates in the tropics means thinking outside the North American box: Bromeliads and water-holding tree holes are breeding locations for certain species, including Blue-winged Helicopter. All in all, he’s written 75 scientific papers and seven books. Paulson received his Ph.D.
In fact, several species in Miami-Dade are found exclusively in such habitats. Every bit as spectacular, although perhaps not as particular to the Miami area, are the large winter roosts of European Starlings just a few blocks west, always joined by hundreds of native Boat-tailed Grackles , that gather on the utility wires.
Red-necked Grebe by Carlos Sanchez My Best Bird of the Year was a Red-necked Grebe discovered in an urban pond in Tallahassee which lingered long enough for me to go and see it — a full 17 hour round trip drive from Miami. Secretive, silent and undetectable outside of its breeding season, found only in the U.S.
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