Birding in Florida, USA

_{(Great Blue Heron - Ardea herodias)}

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Back in March we spend about ten days in and around The Everglades in Florida. Being Spring it was the perfect time of year for great wildlife spotting, particularly if you like birds (which I do).
Every day we were there I was taking note of all the birds I was seeing and logging them in my birding app (see below). I was especially excited when I spotted a crested caracara (Caracara cheriway). We were told that they were very uncommon in this area.

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_{(Caracara - Caracara cheriway)}

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My full list of birds that I spotted were as follows:

• Anhinga (Anhinga anhinga)
• Double-Crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
• Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) - pictured
• Great Egret (Ardea alba)
• White Ibis (Eudocimus albus)
• Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) - pictured
• Swallow-Tailed Kite (Elanoides forficatus) - pictured
• American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos)
• Gray Catbird (Dumetella. carolinensis)
• Wood Stork (Mycteria americana)
• Tricoloured Heron (Egretta tricolor)
• Red-Shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus)
• Barred Owl (Strix varia)
• Great-Crested Flycatcher (Myiarchus crinitus)
• Black-and-White Warbler (Mniotilta varia)
• Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) - pictured with chicks
• Blue-Winged Teal (Spatula discors)
• Common Gallinule (Gallinula galeata)
• American Coot (Fulica americana)
• Black-Necked Stilt (Himantopus mexicanus)
• Greater Yellowlegs (Tringa melanoleuca)
• American White Pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos)
• Snowy Egret (Egretta thula)
• Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) - chick pictured
• Green Heron (Butorides virescens)
• Glossy Ibis (Plegadis falcinellus)
• Roseate Spoonbill (Platalea ajaja)
• Crested Caracara (Caracara cheriway) - pictured

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_{(Bald Eagle Chick - Haliaeetus leucocephalus)}

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All scientific names in this post were obtained from the All About Birds website. If you don't already know, it's a fantastic website operated by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. They also developed the birding apps I use: ebird and Merlin. These apps work together to help you correctly identify birds. The data is then used for their citizen science projects. Merlin is the app I use to ID the birds and they've made it so user friendly it can be used by literally anyone. ebird is where I then log my birds findings.

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_{(Swallow-tailed Kite - Elanoides forficatus)}

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This is not something I would usually post, but I really enjoy some casual birding and found so many new species (for me) when traveling Florida that I just had to share. If you have any suggestions on how I can improve posts like this, let me know. Similarly, if you have any questions also feel free to comment 😊

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_{(Turkey Vulture - Cathartes aura)}

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_{(Osprey mum and chicks - Pandion haliaetus)}

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