Florida’s Most Precious Birds, and Where to See Them (2024)

Florida Scrub-Jay: Florida’s lone native bird

Many visitors to Florida are drawn to its 825-mile coastline, loaded with gulls, terns, sandpipers and oystercatchers. But some of the most interesting birds hang out in the state’s interior. The Florida Scrub-Jay is one of the easiest of these species to find. Spunky, friendly jays will often seek you out the moment you arrive in their territories in the scattered arid scrublands across the midsection of the state.

The first time we saw a family of Scrub-Jays inland from Titusville in northeastern Florida, three of the birds startled us, suddenly perching right alongside our trail. We assumed it would a brief encounter, but the jays hung around for nearly half an hour, even following us down the path as we moved along.

Scrub-Jays, Florida’s only native bird, are typically accustomed to people because houses and businesses stand adjacent to so much of their sandy, elevated habitat. About 90 percent of the scrubland has been developed. Likewise, roughly 90 percent of the jay’s population has disappeared until only about 4,000 remain.

State agencies, nonprofits and hundreds of volunteers have come together to try to protect the birds by tracking their travels and expanding their territories. One noted scientific project is using radio telemetry to follow the young birds around the clock to decipher exactly how they use their diminishing chunks of land. The jays have attracted hundreds of fans who watch over them, count their numbers and push, at least so far without success, to make the Scrub-Jay the state bird.

The biggest concentrations of the jays can be found in the coastal Jonathan Dickinson State Park north of West Palm Beach; in Ocala National Forest south of Gainesville, at Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge near the Kennedy Space Center around the entrance to the national seashore and in scattered scrublands in the center of the state. Here’s a list of those and other smaller tracts where you’re likely to see these lively, curious birds.

Wood storks, Herons and Egrets

There’s no better place to see Florida birds multiplying up close than the Wakodahatchee Wetlands in Delray Beach, located right in the middle of a busy South Florida residential neighborhood. At feeding time the constant honking and squawking of the stork, heron and egret chicks is loud enough to drown out the passing trucks, cars and planes.

It’s hard to believe this is actually a wastewater filtration plant that the birds decided to turn into a maternity ward. It’s also a park of sorts, popular with bird watchers, tourists and residents alike. Wooden walkways pass so close to the nests that you can peer right into what’s usually impossible to see: Hulking storks and herons gently nudging offspring to eat, stand and eventually fly on their own.

Thousands of birds flock to these 50 acres of wetlands that each day help filter some two million gallons of treated sewage effluent that’s returned to Florida’s water table. About 200 different species can be seen in the compound, but most of the attention goes to the big birds, notably the lumbering Wood Storks. Thanks in part to rookeries like this, the Wood Stork is expected to be removed from the federal Endangered Species list. Once numbering just 5,000 birds, the population has more than doubled the past several decades.

Bird watching can often require getting up at dawn, hiking to remote places and putting up with pesky insects. At Wakodahatchee Wetlands, however, a security guard is often directing traffic to the parking lot within a minute’s walk of this profound glimpse of nature’s magic.

White and Brown Pelicans

For a glimpse of Florida’s birding history – and a look at how this state helped create a key plank in the nation’s conservation system – visit Pelican Island National Wildlife Refuge midway up the eastern coast. You’ll usually see Brown Pelicans diving for fish in the very spot where their future was officially secured over a century ago.

Great hordes of pelicans once thrived on this oceanfront strip of land north of Palm Beach, but they became part of a massive slaughter fueled by the sale of feathers for decorating women’s hats. In 1903, fed up with the loss of pelicans, herons, egrets and spoonbills, President Theodore Roosevelt named Pelican Island the nation’s first wildlife refuge. We now have 568 refuges scattered across the country to protect birds and other wildlife. Florida is home to 29 of them, among the highest concentration in the U.S.

From late fall to early spring, resident Brown Pelicans overlap with migrating American White Pelicans in Florida. White Pelicans gather by the dozens in the inland waterways, sifting for fish they scoop up in their huge, comical bills. Brown Pelicans patrol this portion of the state’s 825-mile coastline year-round. They’re best spotted diving into the surf and bays to collect dinner.

Today pelicans are once again common in this first refuge, including the tiny island in the Indian River that gives the preserve its name. But the numbers are comparatively small since development now surrounds the refuge. Its historic role is honored by a long walkway that leads to an overlook of Pelican Island itself: Each of the country’s wildlife refuges and the date they were formed is printed on the planks. The very last plank honors Pelican Island, now 120 years old.

Sandhill Cranes and other easy-to-see species

The juxtaposition of so many bird habitats with homes, businesses, theme parks and campgrounds means you can encounter many iconic species in surprising places. One of the birds that seem most comfortable surrounded by people is also one of the tallest -- the five-foot-tall Sandhill Crane that is Florida’s own version of this lithe and graceful species.

The migrating branch of the Sandhill Crane family is famous for massive flocks that fill the skies in parts of the Midwest each spring. But the Florida subspecies stays put and has grown accustomed to the state’s steady growth. The birds wander in people’s yards, down busy streets, even along highways. The lanky creatures stroll along oblivious to people, allowing a close-up inspection of their helmet-like red caps and shimmering grey plumage.

Other easily spotted birds that you’ll have to watch from a distance are nonetheless plentiful in Florida. They include many of the largest and most recognizable species: Great Blue Heron constantly roam marshes and lakes, standing like statues in shallow water throughout Florida. Ospreys, the skillful fishing machines constantly hover over lakes and rivers ready to dive for food. The Bald Eagle, the nation’s most famous conservation success story, has come back from near extinction since the banning of DDT in 1972. One of the greatest concentrations of nesting eagles in the U.S. can be found all around Florida’s waterways.

These familiar species have benefited from conservation efforts, habitat renewal and environmental legislation in Florida and across the U.S.

Hard-to-spot species that are a thrill to see

The first time we went looking for the rare Red-co*ckaded Woodpecker, we spent two days in the St. Sebastian River Preserve State Park southeast of Orlando without finding a single one.

We’d read the woodpeckers build nest cavities in the park’s many old-growth Longleaf Pines. But where exactly? In the end we hired a guide who took us right to a clump of pines we’d already passed twice before. Here’s what the birding books don’t say: You’ll only spot the Red-co*ckaded around the trees at daybreak or about an hour before sunset.

Such is the challenge of trying to find some of Florida’s most endangered birds. Many species in decline do take an extra effort, but when you finally do get to watch, it’s a thrill you don’t forget.

As the Red-co*ckaded Woodpeckers at St. Sebastian left their nest that morning, we followed along as they flitted along the surrounding pine canopy looking for close-by insects to feed their young. Before long the birds would fly miles away to forage for more food before returning hom.

Partly because of its wealth of birds, Florida has more birds in jeopardy than any other state on the continent: Thirty-four species are either federally endangered, threatened or state targets of concern. These range from the tiny Florida Grasshopper Sparrow to such raptors as the Snail Kite, which is listed as endangered, and the Crested Caracara, listed as threatened, a slightly lesser protected status.

The Painted Bunting, one of the most beloved and beautiful songbirds that’s is often caught and sold on the black market, can be found up and down Florida with some luck. They’re often drawn to bird feeders, including at the Merritt Island Visitors Center in recent years.

One of the hardest birds to find is the Grasshopper Sparrow, considered the most endangered bird in the continental U.S. after its population dropped to just a perilous 44 breeding birds. The sparrow is the target of a full-court press by state and federal wildlife agencies, university researchers and nonprofits to rebuild the non-migrating subspecies unique to Florida.

The population is slowly coming back as scientists breed the chicks in captivity and release them a few at a time in protected (and secret) locations on the Florida Prairie not far from Disney World. If the breeding project is successful, the sparrow may one day be plentiful enough to see them once again spread across the grasslands of Central Florida, singing for mates early on spring mornings in the grasslands.

Spoonbills: Expanding their range – and popularity

Our favorite Roseate Spoonbill rookery, located at the entrance of the T.M. Goodwin Waterfowl Management Area, 10 miles northwest of Fellsmere, is just one of the new breeding grounds the birds have established in recent years. Their expansion north and inland is part of the spoonbill’s response to the changing conditions in the Florida Bay at the bottom of the state.

The bird is named for its long, odd-looking beak that ends in a round, spoon-like shape that spoonbills use to sift the water for tasty crustaceans. And that water must be shallow. That’s the reason the birds began to migrate north from the Florida Bay: Water levels have risen from the warming climate, and the water quality flowing through the Everglades has deteriorated.

Roughly two decades ago, spoonbills began to leave their native breeding grounds for the more suitable waters of the inland waterways farther north. The move also contributed to more successful breeding, making spoonbills a species that has actually flourished amid a changing climate. Their northern expansion now stretches as far north as the edge of North Carolina’s coast.

Some spoonbills still live around their original breeding grounds like Sandy Key in the Florida Bay. Other locations along the Gulf Coast include preserves such as Sanibel’s Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge; scattered locations in Central Florida; along the east coast in the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge and into St. Augustine. Here’s a good list of some of the best locations.

The expanding range has introduced spoonbills to many more people. Not long ago at the end of a day at Orlando Wetlands, a preserve near Christmas, Florida, almost everyone we passed had the same question when they saw our camera and tripod: “Are the spoonbills out today?’’

It’s a question we love to hear. The more people tune into birds and understand what’s at stake in the country’s bird meccas, the better the chances are that these magnificent species will continue to thrive as part of a healthy environment.