Some birds, such as this flock of sandwich and royal terns, are
a common sight along the coast during the winter migration season. Photos by Jerry Lower/The Coastal Star
By Cheryl Blackerby
“Hopes are shy birds flying at a great distance ... ”
So said the great naturalist and artist John James Audubon about our fantastic winter visitors — the magnificent white pelicans with 8-foot wingspans, the pretty little red knot shorebirds, and the mighty peregrine falcons — that leave the far north flying 4,000 miles and more on a wing and a prayer on often perilous journeys from Alaska and Canada to South Florida.
Audubon came to Florida in 1831 to research and paint birds for the third volume of his illustrated masterpiece Birds of America. He traveled through South Florida by foot, canoe, skiff and cutter tracking Florida’s spectacular resident birds and glorious winter visitors.
Bald eagles do not always live up to their patriotic image; this one
stole a fish from the osprey.
“We observed great flocks of wading birds flying overhead toward their evening roosts .... They appeared in such numbers to actually block out the light from the sun for some time,” he wrote.
Audubon would surely be heartbroken to learn that many of these birds fly in far fewer numbers today because of the draining of wetlands, habitat loss, human disturbance, pollution and pesticides. But there are success stories such as the elegant trumpeter swan and our national bird, the bald eagle.
We asked Jim Rodgers, avian biologist at Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Wildlife Research Lab, to tell us his favorite winter visitors. Some of his picks are extremely rare in Florida — such as the tundra and trumpeter swans — but he does see them them during his research trips in our area. Others are the common Northern cardinal and American robin, so familiar we may overlook them but shouldn’t.
His top pick? “By far, my favorite is the hooded merganser. It is spectacular.” See pages 2-3 for the lineup.
Meanwhile, don’t miss Audubon’s 113th annual Christmas Bird Count, which will take place Dec. 14 through Jan. 5. Volunteers gather for one day during this time period, depending on the area, to record bird sightings. Data collected in this longest-running wildlife census helps assess the health of bird populations. Go to www.birds.audubon.org/christmas-bird-count to find a Christmas Bird Count near you.
Photos of individual birds/U.S. Fish & Wildlife
Painted Bunting
Size / Color:5.5 inches. Perhaps North America’s most colorful bird. The male has bright red underparts, green back, blue head and red eye ring. The female is bright green all over, paler below.
Diet:Seeds, insects, spiders and snails.
Range:Breeds from Missouri to North Carolina and flies to Gulf Coast states in winter.
Status:In South America it’s captured as a caged bird. It is sold in the markets of Mexico. Numbers have severely decreased in past 10 years.
Notes:This bird is also known as a ‘nonpareil,’ meaning without equal. The female is one of the few bright green birds in North America.
Red Knot
Size / Color:10.5 inches. One of the prettiest shore bird species. Breeding adults have rich reddish brown face and breast with marbled dark brown backs and pale feather edgings. Dark, straight bill, legs greenish. Fall birds are gray above and whitish below.
Diet:Hard-shell mollusks; arthropods and larvae at breeding grounds.
Range:Migrates from the high Arctic of Canada to Florida and south.
Status:Population declining quite severely.
Notes:Those that winter in South America, passing through Florida, may make a round trip of nearly 20,000 miles each year. During migration, they breed on tidal flats, rocky shores and beaches.
White Pelican
Size / Color: 55 to 70 inches, 8-foot wingspan. Florida’s largest flying winter visitor. White with black wing tips, long, flat orange/yellow bill. In breeding season, has short yellowish crest on back of head.
Diet: Fish.
Range: Seasonal migrant from British Columbia and Manitoba south to South Florida.
Status:Because of pesticides, human disturbance and draining of wetlands, they are in decline, their numbers dropping sharply.
Notes:You’re lucky indeed if you see them in flight — majestic birds in a long line flapping their 8-foot stretches of wings. The birds ride rising air currents to great heights, where they soar slowly and gracefully in circles.
Cedar Waxwing
Size / Color:6-8 inches. A beautiful, sleek brown bird, bright yellow below, with black mask, yellow tips on tail feathers and hard red waxlike tips on secondary wing feathers.
Diet:Berries, insects.
Range:Migrates from the conifer forests of Canada to Florida and southern U.S.
Status:Healthy populations.
Notes:The social birds have the amusing habit of passing berries or even apple blossoms from one bird to the next down a long row sitting on a branch until one bird eats the food.
Long-Billed Curlew
Size / Color:12-16 inches. Our largest shorebird, the curlew’s most distinctive feature is the long, sickle-shaped bill. The bird, which is in the sandpiper family, has cinnamon wing linings, no head pattern.
Diet:Small crustaceans and mollusks or berries and seeds, grasshoppers and crickets.
Range:Migrates from southern Canada and the U.S. Northwest south to coastal Florida and Mexico.
Status:With only 20,000 birds left, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Shorebird Conservation Plan both designate this species “highly imperiled.”
Notes: Sometimes called the ‘Sicklebill,’ the curlew was once a plentiful game bird of the Great Plains and the formerly extensive prairies to the east. Curlews are sociable birds when feeding, roosting and migrating.
Sandhill Crane
Size / Color:38-48 inches, 6-foot 8-inch wingspan. Very tall with long neck and legs. Largely gray with a distinctive bright red forehead and white cheeks. Immature birds are browner with no red on head.
Diet: They most often eat corn, plants and grains but also eat invertebrates, small mammals, amphibians and reptiles.
Range:These cranes migrate in great flocks from Alaska, Canada and northern states to southern states from Arizona to South Florida and Mexico.
Status:The resident Florida sandhill crane is a less common crane with only 5,000 birds remaining because of habitat destruction. The bird is state-listed as threatened and protected in Florida. The migrating greater sandhill crane has no current conservation concerns.
Notes: The mating dance is spectacular — birds face each other, members of a pair leap into the air with wings extended and feet thrown forward.
Baltimore Oriole
Size / Color: 7 to 8.5 inches. Male has black head, back, wings and tail; orange breast, rump and shoulder patch. The female is olive-brown with dull yellow-orange underparts and two dull white wing bars.
Diet: Insects, fruit and nectar.
Range: Migrates from Saskatchewan and Nova Scotia south through the Dakotas and winters in Florida and southern coast.
Status: Healthy populations.
Notes: The birds have a flute-like whistle, single or double notes in short, distinct phrases with much individual variation.
Wood Stork
Size / Color: 40-44 inches, 5- to 6-foot wingspan. It is easily distinguished by its large size, upright posture, dark head and neck that looks naked but is actually covered in scaly modified feathers. Its nickname is ‘iron head.’ It has a heavy bill with a downward curve at the tip. White with black flight feathers and tail. Head and neck dark gray.
Diet: They eat fish by probing the water with their bills.
Range: Lives in colonies in Florida’s cypress and mangrove swamps.
Status: The wood stork is on the U.S. Endangered Species List.
Notes: They are expert at soaring, sometimes seen circling high in the air on rising air currents. Unlike herons, storks fly with neck extended.
Peregrine Falcon
Size / Color: 15-21 inches. A large, robust falcon with a black hood and wide black ‘mustaches.’ Adults are slate-gray on their head, back and wings, and pale gray below with fine black bars and spots.
Diet: On the coast, they prey on ducks and shorebirds. Urban falcons subsist mainly on pigeons.
Range: Breeds from Alaska and the Canadian Arctic down through the mountainous west and south to the Gulf Coast and Florida.
Status: Following an alarming decline during the 1950s and ’60s, this spectacular falcon is on the increase now due primarily to the banning of pesticides that caused thinning of eggshells and to an intensive program of rearing birds in captivity and releasing them in the wild.
Notes: Favorite nesting sites nowadays are tall buildings and bridges in
Hooded Merganser
Size / Color: 16-19 inches. The smallest of the mergansers, the male has a white, fan-shaped black-bordered crest, blackish body with dull rusty flanks and white breast with two black stripes down the sides. The female is dull gray-brown with warmer brown head and crest.
Diet: Feeds chiefly on small fish, which they pursue in long, rapid underwater dives, but also eats small frogs, newts, tadpoles and aquatic insects.
Range: Migrates from Canada to Florida and the Southern states.
Status: Healthy population.
Notes: When startled, they are among the fastest-flying of our ducks. Males perform a beautiful courtship display and, once mated, swim energetically around the female in further ritual displays.
Bald Eagle
Size / Color: 30-31 inches; wingspan, 6-7 feet. Large and blackish with a white head and tail and heavy yellow bill.
Diet: It is primarily a fish eater, although it sometimes eats ducks and other birds.
Range: Migrates from Alaska and Canada south to the U.S. including Florida. But there are year-round residents in Florida, too.
Status: The bald eagle was listed as threatened on the U.S. Endangered Species List in every state except Alaska until June 28, 2007. Its recovering populations allowed it to be removed from the list, and it is one of the major success stories of the Endangered Species Act and the conservation movement.
Notes: The bald eagle’s beachcombing habit was its downfall, for it accumulated pesticides from contaminated fish and wildlife. Hunting, poaching and the encroachment of civilization reduced its population drastically. Now that the pesticides have been banned, our national bird is staging a comeback.
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