Top Ten Best Birds of Florida
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Scrub Jay
• Endemic to Florida, the only bird found nowhere else in the world.
• Blue and gray, highly social, and sadly threatened due to habitat loss.
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Roseate Spoonbill
• A splash of tropical pink with a flat, spoon-shaped bill.
• Feeds by sweeping its bill side to side in shallow water.
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Brown Pelican
• Icon of Florida's coasts, often diving dramatically for fish.
• Once endangered from DDT, now recovered and thriving.
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Willet
• A sturdy gray shorebird that reveals bold black-and-white wing patterns in flight.
• Its piercing "pill-will-willet!" call echoes over beaches and marshes.
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Laughing Gull
• Black-headed in summer with a distinctive laughing call.
• The classic Florida beach gull, bold, noisy, and opportunistic.
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Anhinga
• Slender waterbird that swims with only its neck sticking out, like a snake.
• Often seen drying its wings outstretched after diving.
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Osprey
• Common along coasts, lakes, and rivers. A skilled fish hunter with a reversible outer toe for gripping.
• Nests on poles, platforms, and channel markers across Florida.
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Wood Stork
• Large, bald-headed stork of swamps and wetlands.
• One of the few storks native to North America and a sign of healthy wetlands.
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Mangrove Cuckoo
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Snail Kite
• Specialized raptor of Florida marshes, feeding almost entirely on apple snails.
• Curved bill perfectly adapted for snail extraction.
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Great Blue Heron
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Limpkin
Found in North and South America. In The United States, a very Floridian, snail-hunting, cousin of the cranes.
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Northern Cardinal
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Purple Gallinule
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Northern Mockingbird
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Ruddy Duck
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American White Ibis
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American Oystercatcher
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Sanderling
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Common Ground Dove
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Eurasian Collared Dove
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Red-Bellied Woodpecker
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Caspian Tern
• Largest tern in the world, with a massive red bill, loud calls, and powerful flight.
• Common along Florida coasts, estuaries, and big inland lakes.
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Forster's Tern
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Gull-Billed Tern
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Black Skimmer
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House Finch
