Birders take delight in the fact that the Sunshine State almost always provides optimal lighting opportunities for photographing Florida birds. As a premiere tourist and beach destination, it’s practically impossible for any visitor with a camera to not get the urge to snap a picture of at least one bird sharing the beach with them.
The Florida Ornithological Society documents a bit over five hundred resident and migratory bird species present in the state.
With that large number of species, there’s always going to be a birding opportunity, and for many birders an opportunity to add new species to their life lists.
Mockingbirds, the state bird of Florida, can be found in residential areas and most other parts of the state. Most visitor areas, especially in the state parks, provide pamphlets with lists of local birds, to help everyone with their bird identification skills.
American Goldfinch
Evening Grosbeak
Blue Gray Gnatcatcher
Blue Jay
Brown-headed Cowbird
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow
Eastern Peewee
House Wren
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Loggerhead Shrike
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo
Northern Cardinal
Gray Catbird
Blue Grosbeak
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Swainson’s Thrush
Wood Thrush
American Redstart (female)
Ovenbird
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Here’s a quick couple of dozen additional common perching birds. Many, like the Northern Mockingbird are year round residents and tourists are bound to see at least a half dozen or so in the neighborhood of their hotels. Hotels with bird feeders will attract even more species.
Woodpeckers are also a common feeder bird. The woodpeckers button leads to an article covering Florida species in greater detail.
Most of the songbirds such as the Vireos and Warblers could be classified as migratory. The Florida Audubon Society provides a checklist of state birds to get individuals started. In the warbler category, Florida counts over three dozen species that
visit during the migration.
The birds topic button on the left leads to information suited to answering basic bird identification questions. Read on for a quick birding tip for tourists in the Tampa Bay area.
Birding Fort De Soto Park: Tampa Bay, Florida
Tucked away at the tip of a peninsula on the southern end of Tampa Bay, Fort De Soto Park offers locals and tourists one of the country’s premiere beach destinations.
Less well known it the fact that birding Fort De Soto Park ranks among the real treats of American birding opportunities. This relatively small, 1,136-acre park, hosts close to three hundred different year round and migratory bird species during the course of the year. Considering the fact that the total number of Florida bird species hovers in the upper four hundred range, a trip to Fort De Soto offers the birder close to sixty percent of the entire Florida birding experience in one package.
Water birds such as gulls, terns, herons, sandpipers and plovers share the water’s edge with park visitors. The picture shows a rather fluffy, and endangered, Piping Plover enjoying an early morning stroll. During the spring and fall migrations, warblers and native northern birds looking for a rest stop and food, hang out in the parks pines, palms and mangroves.
Plan to spend a long day at this former military fort, named for the Spanish explorer Hernando De Soto. Picnic tables and other conveniences are located throughout the park. The best birding starts at the first rays of sunlight in the morning.
Visitors should get a map upon arriving at the park entrance in order to become acclimated to the parks different areas.
Photographers might want to note that the early morning sun light shines gently on your back, and on the birds along the North Beach area. Park in the adjacent lot and plan for a long morning walk up and down the beach, and along a mangrove lagoon.
While many birds take a brief time out during the late morning and early afternoon, opportunities to engage in typical beach activities such as swimming, hiking, biking and kayaking abound. The historic fort is also open for exploration.
As the sun begins to settle in the late afternoon, the birds return to the water’s edge in greater numbers.
Florida Birds: Beach Birds
Regardless of which Florida beach one decides to visit, they all share some common beach bird species like the ten shown in the video.
The video shows many of the common beach birds of the East Coast.
American Oystercatcher
Black Tern
Sanderling
Willet
Ruddy Turnstone
Royal Tern
Caspian Tern and Gulls
Brown Pelicans
Sometimes the terms shorebirds and beach birds get used interchangeable. Shorebirds technically refers to a group of wading birds with pointed bills that are found along both fresh water and saltwater shorelines.
Florida Audubon lists the thirteen shorebirds most common on Florida Beaches:
Black-bellied Plover
Piping Plover
Wilson’s Plover
Snowy Plover
Semipalmated Plover
Sanderling
Willet
Dunlin
Ruddy Turnstone
Short-billed Dowitcher
Marbled Godwit
Red Knot
American Oystercatcher
Plovers, including the aforementioned Snowy Plover are the most common types of shorebirds.
Additional types of birds such as pelicans, herons, gulls and terns also populate Florida beaches. While most of the heron sighting are of species seen across the United States such as the Great Egret and the Great Blue Heron, he Reddish Egret is the most rare species and a great get for all tourists.