Florida: The South, the Keys and the Dry Tortugas

Day 1: The trip begins at 6 p.m. this evening in the lobby of our hotel near Southwest Florida International Airport, Fort Myers.

Day 2: We’ll leave early for Port Charlotte and the Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management area, a large tract of Slash Pine and marsh whose inhabitants include the celebrated pinewoods trio of Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Bachman’s Sparrow. Sandhill Cranes nest in the area, and roadside ditches sometimes hold King Rail. Here too will be singing Eastern Towhees, Brown Thrashers, Eastern Bluebirds and Eastern Meadowlarks, none of which are common further to the south.  Just a bit north, on the outskirts of Punta Gorda, several clusters of the curious and social Florida Scrub-Jays have prospered for years and we’re almost certain to find them. It’s hard to know exactly how much time it will take to find and fully absorb these four North American endemics. If we accomplish our goals with dispatch, we may travel further north to the managed wetlands called the Sarasota Celery Fields, where we should encounter our first Limpkin among the many wading birds, and to Fort Desoto, where given the right weather thick woods and fruiting mulberry trees can be filled with migrating songbirds.  Nearby the fort we can look for Nanday Parakeets, while the beach offers excellent shorebirding and we hope to see American Oystercatcher, Piping and Wilson's Plovers, Red Knots, Black Skimmers, and a whole host of other shorebirds.  Night in Fort Myers.

Day 3: We’ll start the day visiting a nearby freshwater marsh a few miles inland that typically supports a healthy population of Limpkin and good numbers of Snail Kites that typically forage along the irrigation canals.  Afterwards we’ll likely stop in near the coast to look at a colony of Burrowing Owls and then, if the tide conditions favor us, will stop at Bunche Beach; a well-known wader area that supports a nice array of shorebirds and herons at low tide.  Later we’ll drive across the peninsula, stopping at the Big Cypress Preserve, a delightful sanctuary with an elevated winding boardwalk through stands of tall Bald Cypress to a sawgrass marsh. The huge Cypress trees lend a somewhat primeval feel, and although the preserve is an experience as much as a birding spot, we hope to find Pileated Woodpecker, and a collection of warblers perhaps including Yellow-throated and Northern Parula on territory.  After lunch, we’ll drive south and east across the northern Everglades to Florida City and the gateway to Everglades National Park. If time allows, we’ll visit the neighborhood around the Kendall Baptist Hospital to look for Red-whiskered Bulbul, Spot-breasted Oriole and Egyptian Geese and Muscovy Duck.  Night in Florida City.

Day 4: On day four we will visit the Everglades National Park, spending the morning on the main park road into Flamingo, stopping along the way for "Cape Sable" Seaside Sparrows. At Flamingo, we’ll scan mudflats for shorebirds and terns, possibly including Marbled Godwit and Gull-billed Tern along with the local “Great White” Herons.  For the past several years small numbers of Shiny Cowbirds have frequented the parking lot area, and with luck we’ll have excellent views of this scarce invader from the Caribbean.  West Indian Manatee are commonly found lurking around the docks while we may also spot an American Crocodile.

We’ll return to Florida City midday, then make the incredibly scenic, if slow, 120-mile drive to Key West, making a few stops along the way before arriving in the late afternoon. We’ll eat dinner early, then venture out again at dusk to look for and listen to Antillean Nighthawk. Night in Key West.

Day 5: We’ll sail at 8:00 am for the Tortugas aboard the Yankee Freedom III. Our route will take us swiftly and directly to the Tortugas, where we’ll arrive in the late morning. We’ll have about four hours to watch the great Sooty Tern and Brown Noddy spectacle, to look for Black Noddy, Bridled Tern, and other rarities, and to thoroughly search Fort Jefferson for migrants that can include thrushes, buntings, orioles, and up to 20 species of warblers. The Tortugas inevitably produce surprises: Caribbean vagrants resting in the trees within the fort, perhaps a Chuck-will’s-widow inside the old powder magazine, or a Short-eared Owl perched in one of the trees on the parade ground.  For those interested it is possible to borrow snorkel gear from the ferry and take a dip into the rich waters around the fort during our stay on the island. 

On the way back to Key West we’ll look for Masked Boobies and also check the buoys for loafing Brown Boobies or Roseate Terns.  The trip to and from the fort crosses a deepwater channel where we might also see Northern Gannet (making for a three Sulid day), and with some luck jaegers or even an Sargasso Shearwater. We’ll return to Key West in the late afternoon arriving around 5:00 pm for a great seafood dinner by the harbor. Night in Key West.

Day 6: Among the principal landbird attractions of the Lower Keys, White-crowned Pigeon and Black-whiskered Vireo are widespread and conspicuous. Mangrove Cuckoo, however, is neither, and we’ll spend the morning checking several locations looking for this handsome bird. In some years we’ve had good views of cuckoos within just 15 minutes of exiting our vehicles; in others it requires a lot of patience. We’ll continue up the Keys, stopping at shorebird roosts or migrant traps along the way. As the tour winds down, we’ll search for any rarities that might be present in the area or end the day watching parrots fly to roost in Miami. Night in Miami.

Day 7: This will be a flexible day. We’ll look for species that we might have missed and will have time to track down any reported rarities in the greater Miami area.  We generally stop in at one of the excellent wetland parks near Loxahatchee, to enjoy the full array of breeding herons, anhingas and Wood Storks that tamely breed along the boardwalks.  Seeing these birds in their full breeding dress is an amazing experience, and with some careful scrutiny we might pick out a nesting pair of Least Bitterns or Purple Gallinules amongst the throngs.  We’ll almost certainly use some of the day to track down remaining “countable” exotics like Gray-headed Swamphen, Scaly-breasted Munia, and Mitred and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets, and also visit one or more of the excellent migrant traps along the coast for a last look at assorted warblers, vireos, thrushes or cuckoos that might be resting after their journey across the Caribbean. Night in Miami.

Day 8: The tour concludes this morning in Miami.

• 2026 Narrative - Second Departure
• 2026 Narrative - First Departure

2026 Narrative - Second Departure

The South Florida tour covered a wide array of habitats ranging from pinewoods to coastal beaches and wetlands to the vast Everglades the extensive Florida Keys. Late-April offers the best birding in this region when resident birds are joined by summer visitors while migrants from further south are passing through on their way north.

We began this tour in Fort Myers where we visited Babcock-Webb, where an extensive area is managed for pinewood specials such as Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch, and Bachman’s Sparrow. Nearby we visited the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay and also sifted through flocks of migrant songbirds and shorebirds at Fort DeSoto. 

Crossing from the Gulf Coast to the Atlantic Coast, we worked out way south through the Florida Keys targeting Black-whiskered Vireo, Mangrove Cuckoo, White-crowned Pigeon, and Antillean Nighthawk. From Key West we took a day trip out to the Dry Tortugas for a day of Brown Noddies, Sooty and Bridled Terns, Brown, Red-footed, and Masked Boobies, and a whole host of migrants. 

We finished off the tour in and around Miami where we targeted the countable exotics including Scaly-breasted Munia, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Spot-breasted Oriole, Egyptian Goose, and a whole array of parrots. We also visited the Wakodahatchee Wetlands for an up-close view of breeding waterbirds namely Wood Storks, Anhingas, and a host of herons and egrets. It was a productive tour with favorable weather, excellent birds, and great camaraderie!

We had a gorgeous first morning at Babcock-Webb Wildlife Management Area just north of Fort Myers. The morning fog being pierced by the sun through the sparsely forested pinewoods really set the stage for an excellent morning. We stopped along the gravel road at a reliable spot for the Red-cockaded Woodpecker and quickly found a couple, which even came closer for superb views. The morning chorus included Eastern Meadowlarks, Great Crested Flycatchers and some distance Sandhill Cranes calling. Common Ground Doves were, indeed, common, and we spotted some along a side track. Further along the road we picked up two more targets, Brown-headed Nuthatch and Bachman’s Sparrow obtaining great views of both. We also had Northern Bobwhite, Pileated and Hairy Woodpecker, Pine Warbler, Loggerhead Shrike, and Eastern Towhee, the pale-eyed form here in the southeastern U.S., roosting Common Nighthawks, and a bonus Yellow-billed Cuckoo.

Continuing north we drove a neighborhood where we eventually found the endemic Florida Scrub-Jay before arriving at an area called The Celery Fields. These wetlands provided an excellent stock of marsh birds including Common and Purple Gallinules, Gray-headed Swamphen, and a selection of herons and egrets such as Tricolored and Little Blue Herons. Also present were Mottled and Wood Ducks, Sora, Black-necked Silts, Glossy and White Ibis, and a couple flyby Nanday Parakeets.

Our final stop of the day was For De Soto Park. We first pointed our attention to a forested area in search of migrants. It was pretty quiet, but we did Gray Kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Loggerhead Shrike, and a selection of migrant warblers – American Redstart, Cape May, Palm, and Prairie Warblers, and Northern Parula. Magnificent Frigatebirds loafed overhead.

The beach area was bustling with people, but focusing on the quieter areas, we picked up American Oystercatcher, Black-bellied, Semipalmated, and Wilson’s Plovers, Marbled Godwit, Short-billed Dowitcher, Willet, Ruddy Turnstone, Red Knot, Sandering, Dunlin, and Least Sandpiper. Non shorebirds included Lesser Black-backed Gull, Black Skimmer, Least, Gull-billed, Caspian, Royal Forester’s and Sandwich Terns, and Reddish Egret.

The next morning, we drove out to the edge of Fort Myers where a canal that cuts through a neighborhood hosts Snail Kites. We quickly found a couple flying up and down the canal and occasionally perching. We enjoyed these beauties along with Limpkin and our first Cedar Waxwings.

We then headed back into Fort Myers and paid a quick visit to Bunche Beach for more shorebirds adding American Redstart and Hudsonian Whimbrel among the usual crowd. A Prairie Warbler also made an appearance in the nearby coastal scrub. 

After cleaning up on all of our targets on the Gulf Coast, we crossed the Florida peninsula through the Big Cypress Preserve and Everglades National Park stopping for Scissor-tailed Kites and a picnic lunch en-route. While eating we were entertained by a Barred Owl, which helped bring in a host of curious birds including Tufted Titmouse, Carolina Wren, Black-and-white Warbler and Black-throated Green Warbler.  

Once we reached the bustling city of Miami, a stop at a local city park yielded our first countable exotic, a stunning Spot-breasted Oriole.

With time to spare before checking into our hotel, we headed to Bill Baggs where a Bahama Mockingbird was being reported. We had the bird within seconds of arrival and had a great opportunity to study the differences from the expected Northern Mockingbird. With the success, we headed to our Florida City hotel for the night.

The next morning, we headed to a nearby Cave Swallow colony before breakfast where we had no fewer than 75 individuals flying in and out of the bridge. The banks of the canal was lined with Muscovy Ducks as well.

After breakfast, we headed into the Everglades National Park for the morning, but made a stop for a White-tailed Kite just before entering the park. We worked our way to Flamingo at the end of the road where our main target was Shiny Cowbird. Exploring around we found a couple dozen “Great White” Herons, the white form of Great Blue Heron, West Indian Manatees, American Crocodile, and finally a male Shiny Cowbird mixed in with Brown-headed Cowbirds. We also had Roseate Spoonbills, a cooperative Pileated Woodpecker, and a party of migrant warblers including our first Northern Yellow.  

The afternoon was spent slowly working our way down the Florida Keys towards Key West. This incredibly scenic drive, spanning over 100 miles including 42 bridges, was broken up with a couple stops along the way. A quick stop added Black-throated Blue Warbler, though the Mangrove Yellow Warbler did not show. Nearby the exceptionally long named Dagny Johnson Key Large Hammock Botanical Garden State Park provided an impressive three Mangrove Cuckoos, our first Black-whiskered Vireo and Blackpoll Warbler, and a surprise Eastern Screech-Owl. 

Eventually we arrived in Key West, checked into our hotel, and enjoyed a delicious seafood dinner.

The next day promised to be a memorable day as we embarked on a boat trip out to the Dry Tortugas the spend the day. The ride out yielded an impressive number of Bridled Terns, some making close passes to the ferry offering excellent views.

Just before arriving at Garden Key, the ferry made a detour and circled East Key. This sandbar hosted around 84 Masked Boobies and careful scanning produced a single Brown Booby mixed among them,

We arrived at Garden Key, where the fort is located and where we’d spend the day. We were greeted by thousands of Brown Noddies and Sooty Terns, hundreds of Magnificent Frigatebirds, and a team of Ruddy Turnstones on the beach. Our first stop was the part of the key where Black Noddy can be found. Unfortunately, there wasn’t any hanging out this season, so we turned our attention to the various patches of trees in search of migrants. 
 Our walking loop checking out all of the key spots on the key picking up Yellow-crowned Night-Heron, Veery, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Indigo Bunting, and about 50 warblers of 9 species including our first Blackburnian, however, a continuing Cuban Pewee, a vagrant, stole the show and celebration ensued. 

A permanent water drip brought in most migrants where we were able to enjoy lunch watching them take turns taking baths. Raptors were well represented and we had an American Kestrel, Merlin, and a rare “Caribbean” Osprey. As if that wasn’t enough, careful scanning of the Magnificent Frigatebird yielded our third booby of the trip, a single Red-footed Booby.

Eventually we had to part ways from the fort and make the journey back to Key West. Along the way we had our only Northern Gannet of the trip. Eventually we arrived and were greeted to the ever-present Red Junglefowl that dominate the key. 

After an early dinner, we ventured back out once more in search of Antillean Nighthawk not far from Key West. This species can be tricky and often requires a very early start the next morning to a reliable spot. However, luck was on our side, and we managed to hear and see at least two flying around right at dusk.

Before departing Key West the nest morning, we stopped by Fort Zachary Taylor State Park. White-crowned Pigeons were common and offered great views. Migration was a little light, but we did have nine species of warblers along with a Black-whiskered Vireo, and some bonus Bobolinks moving through.

We packed our bags and began our long journey back up the Florida Keys towards Miami. Along the way we stopped for Clapper Rail, hearing no fewer than five of these of the “Caribbean” subspecies. 

We spent the rest of the day targeting some exotic species around the Miami suburbs finding Indian Peafowl, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Scaly-breasted Munia, Egyptian Goose, and Mitred Parakeet.

We headed north to the Wakodahatchee Wetlands the following morning, a large breeding site for waterbirds. We walked the boardwalk where Wood Storks, Anhingas, White and Glossy Ibis, Snowy Egrets, and Tricolored Herons, among others all very numerous and within arm’s reach. This offered an excellent opportunity to see the nestlings up close and personal and unparalleled photographic opportunities. Also present were Pied-billed Grebe, Least Bittern, American Alligator, lots of Brown Basilisks, a few Marsh Rabbits, and more.

Some in the group wanted better views of Roseate Spoonbill so we headed to the nearby Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge where we parked ourselves on a small observation tower and had a couple excellent eye-level flybys of this iconic species. A King Rail calling from the thick wetlands next to us was a surprise, but it never did make an appearance.

Working our way back south towards our Miami airport hotel, we stopped for a vagrant Neotropical vagrant and then visited a city park that hosted nesting Burrowing Owls. These owls nest among a series of soccer fields and are oblivious to the parkgoers. Monk Parakeets were nesting in the nearby powerline structures.  

We finished the day visiting a couple evening roosting sites for exotic parrots where added our final new birds of the tour – Red-masked, White-winged, and Yellow-chevroned Parakeets and a pair of Chestnut-fronted Macaws.

All in all, it was an incredibly successful trip and there was so much to celebrate! We checked into our hotel and enjoyed a delicious dinner to cap off our final evening together, toasting to a fantastic and successful South Florida tour.

- Ethan Kistler, 2026

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2026 Narrative - First Departure

Brief Summary

The first of our two Florida tours this spring was full of memorable sightings and showed how much Florida has to offer the birdwatcher and naturalist. From resident southeastern specialties like Red-cockaded Woodpecker and the state's endemic Florida Scrub-Jay, to abundant migrants such as Cape May Warbler returning from their winter haunts in the Caribbean, to the real south Florida specialties like Black-whiskered Vireo and Mangrove Cuckoo, we really packed in the sightings in our six days of birding. We also searched for and found many of the established exotics, such as Mitred Parakeet and Spot-breasted Oriole, and took advantage of rare bird alerts and a network of observers to see an exciting Bahama Mockingbird. But the overall highlight of the tour was the day trip to the Dry Tortugas National Park, a world unto itself. The teeming Sooty Tern and Brown Noddy breeding colony was a spectacle, we managed to find a few scarce Bridled Terns, and the bird of the trip was a mega-rare Cuban Pewee that was there for its ninth day, one of the most confiding birds of the whole tour. The American Alligator, West Indian Manatee, dragonflies, and butterflies, and other critters rounded out a fantastic natural history experience.

Detailed Summary

Finding the Red-cockaded Woodpecker at our first stop was not a slam dunk. There were plenty of marked trees showing we were in the right area, but we had racked up a few good sightings already before we finally heard the distinctive call and then saw a single bird foraging actively overhead. A pair of Sandhill Cranes flew by, and Brown-headed Nuthatch and Great-crested Flycatcher were additional birds we noted before concentrating on finding our next target, Bachman's Sparrow. This proved even more difficult than the woodpecker, but we finally found a singing bird that sat for prolonged views through the spotting scopes. We then made short work of Florida Scrub-Jay, finding a pair feeding a very recent fledgling. We followed up on a report of a migrant-filled park including Swainson's Warbler from the day before, but by today most of the migrants had already cleared out. The Celery Fields was next on our route, and it provided many new species, including our only Gray-headed Swamphen and Roseate Spoonbill. A single Nanday Parakeet fed at the feeders there, but as we left, several more flew in. There were precious few migrants at Fort De Soto Park, and the long-staying anis eluded us, but Cape May Warbler and many gliding Magnificent Frigatebirds were the highlights. During the drive back south, we noted several elegant Swallow-tailed Kites hunting over the forests.

We started our morning near Fort Myers looking for Snail Kite, and we scored one almost immediately along a canal through a residential area. Our second stop resulted in Limpkins as well as another couple of Snail Kites, one with a band on its leg. We had a delightful walk out Bunche Beach where the tide was perfect for watching scores of diverse shorebirds as well as a roosting group of Black Skimmer, terns, and gulls. The throngs were flushed a couple of times, first by a Bald Eagle, then later by a passing Northern Harrier. We had our picnic lunch in a wooded area right on the highway across the peninsula, where a small group of migrants included a handsome male Black-throated Blue Warbler. Great-crested Flycatchers called loudly overhead and a Swallow-tailed Kite pair sailed over a couple times, but the star of the show here was the pair of Barred Owls that flew in, responding to a rather poor vocal imitation. We completed our drive across the peninsula, stopping at a park where Spot-breasted Oriole showed immediately upon our arrival. We then dipped on a place where there had been sightings of elusive Mangrove Cuckoos but had a male Blackpoll Warbler as a nice consolation prize.

We spent the morning in Everglades National Park, making it to the end of the road in Flamingo, where we first checked out a giant American Crocodile and then a pair of West Indian Manatees drinking a tiny spray of freshwater leaking from a pipe under the boat docks. In the campground we located a pair of Shiny Cowbirds, then walked a short trail where we found our first Black-whiskered Vireo accompanied by a White-eyed Vireo that proved to be an adept decoy. Wandering among the mangroves, we enjoyed hearing the buzzy songs of Prairie Warbler. Back in civilization, we stopped at a freeway bridge where a massive breeding colony of Cave Swallows showed well before we began the long drive out the long chain of islands known as The Keys. We made one good birding stop at Long Key where we found another very cooperative Black-whiskered Vireo as well as a very vocal group of Clapper Rails in the mangroves.

Our boat ride out to the Dry Tortugas National Park was beautiful and largely uneventful until we crossed the slightly deeper channel just before arriving at Garden Key. Here we had a close fly-by of three Common Terns, followed not long after by a lone Sargasso Shearwater. Once on the island of Garden Key we made a beeline for the campground where we found the stakeout Cuban Pewee without too much difficulty. One we found it, it was amazingly tame, and we spent some time watching it forage, sometimes at arm's length. This was the 9th day of what would turn out to be its 13th stay, quite a lucky find as the country's approximately 11th record. It was also notable that this bird was from the Cuban population, probably specifically distinct from the Bahamian population. We took in the bustling Sooty Tern and Brown Noddy colony, checking for Black Noddy at least three times to find that it never showed on its usual perches. Bridled Tern, however, did appear from the lookout on top of the rampart. Other highlights from the island included many migrant Prairie and Cape May Warblers, a cooperative Ovenbird, and a rare ridgwayi subspecies of Osprey, with a striking, white head. As we left on the Freedom Yankee III, the captain obligingly took us on a little detour to pass by East Key where we had excellent views of Masked Booby.

We took our time working our way back up the Keys, looking for Mangrove Cuckoo and Mangrove Yellow Warbler everywhere we went. A Blackpoll Warbler, a very vocal Black-whiskered Vireo, and Magnificent Frigatebirds were some of the consolation prizes, and while we never found the warbler, our last stop in the keys was the spot for Mangrove Cuckoo, where one came in very close for great photos. We finished the day looking for established exotics closer to Miami, getting photos of Julia butterflies along the way, then finding Mitred Parakeet, Red-whiskered Bulbul, and a single White-winged Parakeet coming in to roost with a large group of Yellow-chevroned Parakeets.

We began our last day with a solid attempt for the Bahama Mockingbird that had been at Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park for two days, accidentally finding White-eyed Parakeets only because we were 15 minutes too early for the opening of the gate. Alas, the mockingbird appeared to be gone, but as we were departing, we got a phone call from friend Doug Gochfeld that he and Chris Benesh had found another one a few miles north of where we were while scouting for their Field Guides tour. We dashed off there only to find that it had flown and disappeared. Nice consolation prizes were at least a couple Yellow-billed Cuckoos in the same area. We finally gave up on the mockingbird to try for Mangrove Yellow Warbler and La Sagra's Flycatcher, only to hear that the second Bahama Mockingbird had been relocated when we got to our lunch spot. The area where we didn't see the La Sagra's was full of White-eyed Vireos as well as more Mangrove Cuckoos (presumably having just arrived on migration) as well as a vocal pair of Eastern Screech-Owls. Having spent some time not finding the flycatcher, we decided to try once again for the Bahama Mockingbird, and as luck would have it, the park was still open and the bird was there when we arrived. We enjoyed the bird for not more than five minutes when a park employee drove up to let us know the park was closing and he was about to close the gate. We would turn out to be the last observers of this bird. What a great finale to a fun tour.

- Rich Hoyer, 2026

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