The Sandwich Tern is a sleek, medium-sized tern with a ragged black crest and a gleaming black bill with a sharp yellow tip. It's smaller and slimmer than a Royal Tern, a species it often nests alongside in busy, shrieking colonies along the barrier islands of the southeastern U.S.
Its broad global range also includes the Caribbean, Latin America, Africa, and Europe. Rarely found inland or out to sea, this is a bird of ocean shores and estuaries, where it hunts small schooling fish. Cornell All About Birds
This is the very first digital image I took upon arriving at Cape San Blas Florida.
Swirling over beaches with strident calls and a distinctive, crisp black head, Laughing Gulls provide sights and sounds evocative of summer on the East Coast.
You’ll run across this handsome gull in large numbers at beaches, docks, and parking lots, where they wait for handouts or fill the air with their raucous calls.
Laughing Gulls are summer visitors to the Northeast and year-round sights on the coasts of the Southeast and the Gulf of Mexico. Cornell All About Birds
Although Carolina Wrens are certainly common in our neck of the woods they are extremely common on the Florida Panhandle. It is very common to be awaken by the early morning call of the Carolina Wren.
In summer it can seem that every patch of woods in the eastern United States rings with the rolling song of the Carolina Wren. This shy bird can be hard to see, but it delivers an amazing number of decibels for its size.
Follow its teakettle-teakettle! and other piercing exclamations through backyard or forest, and you may be rewarded with glimpses of this bird's rich cinnamon plumage, white eyebrow stripe, and long, upward-cocked tail.
This hardy bird has been wintering farther and farther north in recent decades. Cornell All About Birds
With their vivid fusion of blue, green, yellow, and red, male Painted Buntings seem to have flown straight out of a child’s coloring book. Females and immatures are a distinctive bright green with a pale eyering.
These fairly common songbirds breed in the coastal Southeast and in the south-central U.S., where they often come to feeders.
They are often caught and sold illegally as cage birds, particularly in Mexico and the Caribbean, a practice that puts pressure on their breeding populations.
In migration and winter, search for Painted Buntings by targeting sources of seeds such as weedy fields or bird feeders. In the summer, cruise through secondary growth or edge habitats with dense understory and listen for the species’ metallic chip call or the sweet, rambling song of a male. Painted Buntings spend a lot of time hidden in dense habitat so patience might be necessary; however, the wait will be worth it when you finally spot this gem, surely one of North America’s finest songbirds. Cornell All About Birds
Large, white Wood Storks wade through southeastern swamps and wetlands. Although this stork doesn't bring babies, it is a good flier, soaring on thermals with neck and legs outstretched.
This bald-headed wading bird stands just over 3 feet tall, towering above almost all other wetland birds.
It slowly walks through wetlands with its long, hefty bill down in the water feeling for fish and crustaceans.
This ungainly looking stork roosts and nests in colonies in trees above standing water. Cornell All About Birds
White Ibises gather in groups in shallow wetlands and estuaries in the southeastern United States. At each step, their bright red legs move through the water and their curved red bill probes the muddy surface below. White Ibises nest in colonies in trees and shrubs along the water's edge, changing locations nearly every year.
Male White Ibises are super protective. They guard the nest and their female to prevent other ibises from stealing sticks from the nest and from advances of other males during nest building and egg laying. It's not until night when the risks are lower that the female is left alone.
When baby White Ibises hatch their bills are straight. Their bills don't start to curve downward until they are 14 days old. Cornell All About Birds
The flamboyant Roseate Spoonbill looks like it came straight out of a Dr. Seuss book with its bright pink feathers, red eye staring out from a partly bald head, and giant spoon-shaped bill.
Groups sweep their spoonbills through shallow fresh or salt waters snapping up crustaceans and fish. They fly with necks outstretched, to and from foraging and nesting areas along the coastal southeastern U.S., and south to South America.
These social birds nest and roost in trees and shrubs with other large wading birds. Cornell All About Birds
We have also had the privilege of observing the African Spoonbill which we will cover in future blogs.
With sooty black plumage, a bare black head, and neat white stars under the wingtips, Black Vultures are almost dapper. Whereas Turkey Vultures are lanky birds with teetering flight, Black Vultures are compact birds with broad wings, short tails, and powerful wingbeats. The two species often associate: the Black Vulture makes up for its poor sense of smell by following Turkey Vultures to carcasses. Highly social birds with fierce family loyalty, Black Vultures share food with relatives, feeding young for months after they’ve fledged. Cornell All About Birds
Our own misadventures with Black Vultures were in Everglades National Park. At the trailheads the park supplies tarps and tiedowns for visitors to cover their vehicles for protection from the vultures. We’ve witnessed vultures ripping apart anything rubber on the uncovered vehicles. Windshield wipers, window trim, moldings, really anything rubber gets torn apart.
Lurking in the marshes of the extreme southeastern U.S. lives one of the most vividly colored birds in all of North America.
Purple Gallinules combine cherry red, sky blue, moss green, aquamarine, indigo, violet, and school-bus yellow, a color palette that blends surprisingly well with tropical and subtropical wetlands.
Watch for these long-legged, long-toed birds stepping gingerly across water lilies and other floating vegetation as they hunt frogs and invertebrates or pick at tubers. Cornell All About Birds
The Common Gallinule swims like a duck and walks atop floating vegetation like a rail with its long and slender toes. This boldly marked rail has a brilliant red shield over the bill and a white racing stripe down its side.
It squawks and whinnies from thick cover in marshes and ponds from Canada to Chile, peeking in and out of vegetation. This species was formerly called the Common Moorhen and is closely related to moorhen species in the Old World.
The Common Gallinule has long toes that make it possible to walk on soft mud and floating vegetation. The toes have no lobes or webbing to help with swimming, but the gallinule is a good swimmer anyway. Cornell All About Birds
The highly specialized Snail Kite flies on broad wings over tropical wetlands as it hunts large freshwater snails. These handsome gray-and-black raptors have a delicate, strongly curved bill that fits inside the snail shells to pull out the juicy prey inside.
Unlike most other raptors, Snail Kites nest in colonies and roost communally, sometimes among other waterbirds such as herons and Anhingas. They are common in Central and South America but in the U.S. they occur only in Florida and are listed as Federally Endangered. Cornell All About Birds
The only part of Vero Beach that Marilyn got to see was the sewage lagoons when we stopped to observe Snail Kites.
The round-headed, blue and gray Florida Scrub-Jay is the only bird species that lives exclusively in Florida, where it occurs in patches of low-growing scrub oak in sandy soils. It perches tall with its long tail hanging down or boldly hops on the ground burying acorns.
This social bird forms extended family groups: the young from previous years help their parents at subsequent nests until they can get a territory of their own. Extensive development and habitat fragmentation in Florida threaten this bird’s already small population, placing it on the federal endangered species list. Cornell All About Birds
Whether wheeling over a swamp forest or whistling plaintively from a riverine park, a Red-shouldered Hawk is typically a sign of tall woods and water.
It’s one of our most distinctively marked common hawks, with barred reddish-peachy underparts and a strongly banded tail. In flight, translucent crescents near the wingtips help to identify the species at a distance.
These forest hawks hunt prey ranging from mice to frogs and snakes. Cornell All About Birds
Painted Bunting at Corkscrew Swamp
Since we are working our way through Florida birds and wildlife some readers have emailed inquiring about the birding sites we stop at. So today I have included our route plan with a list of our birding stops working down the ocean coast to the Everglades then back up the gulf side. Of course we research a lot before we go including using ebird to see what species are being seen at the different spots. However there are numerous webpages providing a wealth of knowledge about birding in Florida that should also be looked at.
1. Fort Clinch State Park, Fernandina Beach ( Barred & Screech Owls )
2. Anastasia Sate Park
3. Gamble Rogers State Park
4. Blue Springs State Park - great for Manatees
5. Lake Apopka Wildlife Drive - only open weekends, great birding, lots of waders
6. Merritt Island / Canaveral Seashore - great birding, Florida Scrub Jay
7. Viera Wetlands - I95 S, exit 191, Wickham Road
8. Vero Beach sewage lagoons - Snail Kites
9. T.M Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area - a must, located next to Fellsmere Grade, only open Thursdays. Fellsmere Florida. Marsh Landing restaurant.
10. Everglades National Park
11. Shark Valley Road - Everglades National Park
12. Fakahatchee Strand State Preserve
13. Collier-Seminole State Park
14. Big Cypress
15. Koreshan State Park
16. Fort Myers area - Corkscrew Swamp, Lovers Key, Barefoot Beach, Bowditch Point, Estero lagoon, Pelican Baseball fields.
17. Cape Coral area - Dingh Darling National Wildlife Preserve, Harns Marsh, Six Mile Cypress Slough, Cape Coral Library
18. Venice Rookery
19. Fort Desoto - Clam Bayou Nature Park
20. Circle B Bar Reserve, Lakeland
21. Paynes Prairie State Park
The elegant Great Egret is a dazzling sight in many a North American wetland. Slightly smaller and more svelte than a Great Blue Heron, these are still large birds with impressive wingspans.
They hunt in classic heron fashion, standing immobile or wading through wetlands to capture fish with a deadly jab of their yellow bill.
Great Egrets were hunted nearly to extinction for their plumes in the late nineteenth century, sparking conservation movements and some of the first laws to protect birds. Cornell All About Birds
I’m sure readers have seen tons of Great Blue Heron images on various webpages so I thought I’d only include my favourite image. I just love not only the lighting on the heron but also the tall grass.
Whether poised at a river bend or cruising the coastline with slow, deep wingbeats, the Great Blue Heron is a majestic sight. This stately heron with its subtle blue-gray plumage often stands motionless as it scans for prey or wades belly deep with long, deliberate steps.
They may move slowly, but Great Blue Herons can strike like lightning to grab a fish or snap up a gopher. In flight, look for this widespread heron’s tucked-in neck and long legs trailing out behind. Cornell All About Birds
We frequently get to observe Black Skimmers feeding while on Cape San Blas, Florida and it is a delightful afternoon activity.
A long-winged bird with stark black-and-white plumage, the Black Skimmer has a unique grace as it forages in flight.
Skimmers feed by opening the bill and dropping the long, narrow lower mandible into the water, skimming along until they feel a fish.
Then they relax the neck, quickly closing their jaws and whipping the fish out of the water.
Because they feed by essentially by touch, they can even forage at night. The world’s three species of skimmers are the only birds on earth that feed in this manner. Cornell All About Birds
A dark body stealthily swims through a lake with only a snakelike head poking above the surface. What may sound like the Loch Ness monster is actually an Anhinga, swimming underwater and stabbing fish with its daggerlike bill.
After every dip, it strikes a regal pose on the edges of shallow lakes and ponds, with its silvery wings outstretched and head held high to dry its waterlogged feathers.
I love this image of an adult Anhinga feeding the youngsters.
The Anhinga's distinctive shape earned it the nickname "water turkey" for its turkeylike tail, and "snake bird" for its long snakelike neck as it slithers through the water.
Unlike most waterbirds, the Anhinga doesn't have waterproof feathers. While that may seem like a disadvantage for their watery lifestyle, their wet feathers and dense bones help them slowly submerge their bodies under the water so they can slyly stalk fish. Cornell All About Birds
In the stately and dignified world of herons, Reddish Egrets are the swashbuckling cousins.
These big, cinnamon and steely gray birds put on a show as they forage in shallow saltwater. They race back and forth, open and shut their wings, stir up sediment with their feet, and even swoop low over the water in flight—all in pursuit of small fish.
Reddish Egrets also have a rarer, all-white plumage or "morph." In any plumage, the two-toned bill and shaggy head and neck feathers give them a distinctive look. Cornell All About Birds
Black-crowned Night-Herons are stocky birds compared to many of their long-limbed heron relatives. They’re most active at night or at dusk, when you may see their ghostly forms flapping out from daytime roosts to forage in wetlands.
In the light of day adults are striking in gray-and-black plumage and long white head plumes. These social birds breed in colonies of stick nests usually built over water. They live in fresh, salt, and brackish wetlands and are the most widespread heron in the world. Cornell All About Birds
While not as slender as a typical heron, the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron’s smooth purple-gray colors, sharp black-and-white face, and long yellow plumes lend it a touch of elegance.
They forage at all hours of the day and night, stalking crustaceans in shallow wetlands and wet fields.
Their diet leans heavily on crabs and crayfish, which they catch with a lunge and shake apart, or swallow whole.
They’re most common in coastal marshes, barrier islands, and mangroves, but their range extends inland as far as the Midwest. Cornell All About Birds
Little Blue Herons nest and forage in many kinds of wetlands, including swamps, marshes, ponds, streams, lagoons, tidal flats, canals, ditches, fish hatcheries, and flooded fields.
They nest mostly in shrubs and small trees in standing water or upland sites on islands, including artificial islands created from dredged material. Rarely, they seek prey in upland pasture sites.
They usually forage in water 2–6 inches deep, often gravitating toward densely vegetated foraging sites.
In wintertime, Little Blue Herons make especially frequent use of mangroves, lagoons, salt ponds, mudflats, and savannahs. Cornell All About Birds
