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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.
For January 1st, 2013, I decided to do something a little different this year — a Big Day in Miami-Dade, which involves seeing or hearing as many species as possible within a 24-hour period inside my home county. Yellow-throated Warbler at Dante Fascell Park in Miami-Dade, by Carlos Sanchez.
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. You can almost feel sorry for the hawk.
The second feature is that a very large proportion of the migrants flowing southward will actually remain for the length of winter, so numbers steadily build as migration draws on — remember, over two dozen warbler species spend the winter in Miami-Dade County alone.
These aggressive, boisterous yet attractive geese have begun building a population in Florida from a few accidental escapes from waterfowl collections (Crandon Gardens in Miami-Dade being the most famous). I foresee these birds continuing to spread, gradually replacing other Aratinga species in southeast Florida.
Animal-rights activists claim an orca is being held in an "inadequate tank" in the Miami Seaquarium. The federal complaint focuses on a whale named Lolita, who was captured more than 40 years ago, and has been held at the Miami Seaquarium. Read the rest of the article in the Courthouse News Service.
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.
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. Birding California parakeets Florida parakeets Miami birding' Furthermore, this little parrot has another aspect going for it.
Autumn migration gets off to an inauspicious start in Miami-Dade with the appearance of a small selection of passerines at local migrant traps at mid-July. Before diving into Oktoberfest, however, a very brief introduction to the dynamics of landbird migration in Southeast Florida is in order. A visit to A.D.
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.
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.
My travels this week took me to Miami , where the ocean could barely summon the energy to lap gently against the sand. Even when they are not feeding in their endearing manner, chasing the waves back and forth, Sanderlings are still one of the most watchable birds that you are ever likely to see.
Artist Enrique Gomez De Molina was sentenced to 20 months in prison and a $6,000 fine in Miami on Friday for trafficking in illegal and threatened wildlife. “In promoting that message, he fell grievously from doing things the right way and became one of the very people he tried to educate,” Kuehne said.
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. Petersburg area on the west coast. with the bulk of the population in the Upper Keys and Florida Bay.
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.
Crandon Park, on the island just off the coast of Miami, Fla., In the moderate warmth of a Miami morning, he was able to sustain his fan under light cloud for longer than my camera battery could last. is home to a few exotic species.
Miami Hurricanes (represented by their American White Ibis, Sebastian). The Round of 64 boasts a healthy contingent of teams with bird mascots.* Here’s hoping one of them will end up in the Final Four! For the record, here are all the bird-related teams who made it to the tournament: Oregon Ducks. Florida Gulf Coast Eagles. Temple Owls.
However, I spotted that egregious invasive while in Miami during a layover fro Trinidad and Tobago. It was a great way to end a wonderful week in a new (to Corey) country. If, like Corey, I was unaware of the bonus points at stake, I would have declared a Eurasian Collared Dove my BBOTW. What was your best bird of the weekend?
But if you’re heading south in the coming weeks, Jam Up is certainly a good beer to have on hand if the mercury starts creeping in to the 70s down in Miami or Phoenix. I generally reserve light, sour beers like this for sweltering summer days – something we’re not likely to have where I am for quite some time.
Luis Gonzalez is a Miami resident and IT major who was originally born and raised in Cuba. He has been an avid lover of the natural world since he was a kid, with a strong love for paleontology when he was younger, but he only took up birding in his last year of high school and hasn’t looked back since.
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. His good company was surpassed only by his keen eye that picked out a Mangrove Cuckoo lifer for me and a roosting Common Nighthawk.
Miami and Los Angeles were also major importation hubs, and populations of Aratinga mitrata are well established in those areas. JFK Airport was a major hub for the importation of wildlife for the pet trade, and it is likely that birds escaped from quarantine during this period. Mitred Parakeets are native to southwestern South America.
A Miami native and resident, Carlos is perfectly situated to write about South Florida, which will be his beat, though it would not be the least bit surprising if he occasionally writes about birds and birding further afield. We would like everyone to give a warm welcome to the latest Beat Writer here on 10,000 Birds, Carlos Sanchez.
Brown-crested Flycatchers arrive at their wintering locations in Miami-Dade in autumn, although most records come from the months of January through March when the birds are more actively calling than earlier in the season — their distinctive calls making them easy to differentiate from the more widespread Great Crested Flycatchers.
The bat was once believed to be common on Florida’s eastern coast in the Miami-Coral Gables area but reported there only a few times since the mid-1960s. Further studies used geographic variation and morphology to arrive to the conclusion that E.
And in modern times, that football powerhouse the University of Miami has as it’s mascot a tough-looking White Ibis, known locally as a “ Hurricane Bird ” for it’s bravery (some may say stupidity) in riding out those massive storms.
Much like how Everglades National Park flanks the western border of metropolitan Miami, Florida, Saguaro National Park flanks both the eastern and western outskirts of Tucson, making for easy access to residents and tourists alike who spend time in that city.
Also, take note that this species does not occur regularly north of downtown Miami, as the climate and vegetation north of the city begins to take on increasingly more subtropical characteristics that are not to its liking.
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.
One of the perks about living in Miami is that plane tickets to the bird-rich Caribbean, Central, and South America are often cheaper than going to places like Arizona, Colorado, or California.
On my recent short family vacation to Miami, I was granted a single day to get out and really bird like a madman. Can you believe that a New Yorker could travel all the way to Miami and not be treated to breakfast? Carlos didn’t even pay for them!
Flamingos represented Vegas and Miami and pre-Castro Cuba. Flamingos represented tropical beaches — even though the various species have habitats ranging from alkaline lakes to Andean plateaus. They were dyed a vivid hue that annoyed Tom Wolfe.
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?
Our most insidious institution -- as my talk in Miami in 10 days (August 29th) will explain! If you know anyone in Miami and vicinity who might enjoy an eye-opening evening among eye-opening evenings, let me know and I'll e-mail or mail you a flier to give them -- or will send it straight to them if you give me the information.
Here is a synopsis from a Brown University web site about his case : Matthew Block, of Worldwide Primates, Miami, FL, was sentenced to 13 months in federal prison, three years of supervised probation, and a $30,000 fine at a 2-day sentence hearing on April 16, 1993.
Welcome to Invasive Species Week! – Alien Species - Rose-ringed Parakeet - The Charge of the Egyptian Goose – Hill Mynas in Miami – Grallards : New Zealand’s Next Extinction or Newest Species? We think the week was a rousing success and hope you agree!
O’Barry has been on a dolphin-protection crusade since the day in 1970 that Kathy, one of the dolphins that played Flipper, died in a steel tank at the Miami Seaquarium while he was holding her. Well, that's not true, b&*@.
Antillean Nighthawks, which are best distinguished by call from the Common Nighthawks that share the same areas, seem to be highly localized breeders in the Florida Keys with regular records of singles in Miami-Dade county. Birds at sites such as small airports linger until the end of August.
Turkey Vulture on Little Miami River – Kelly Riccetti, The Red and the Peanut. Kings of the Sky – Karen, The Greenbelt. Return of the Kings - Karen, The Greenbelt. A Vortex of Turkey Vultures During Fall Migration – Larry Jordan, The Birders’ Report. Turkey Vulture – Michael Motto, Iowa Voice.
We did however gain an extra night, at our expense in Miami, Florida, all of which was in the dark, so I could not even run out and put a couple of birds on a Florida State List. The return home included a total of 5 ½ hours of flight delays, one missed flight, and we subsequently missed the entire town of Charlotte, North Carolina.
San Diego; Austin, Texas; Miami; and Portland, Ore. The first event will take place in Chicago on September 24. Events will follow throughout the fall in cities across the country, including: Washington; Staten Island, N.Y.; Nashville, Tenn.; If you have an event in your area and attend, we would love to hear about it.
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