Florida

• Excellent and often easy wildlife viewing, especially large waders
• Specialties of the pine woods of the southeast USA
• Exciting birding on the Keys and the Dry Tortugas

Tour Overview

Winter is a great time to visit south Florida, the subtropics of the United States. On our Florida birding tour, we experience a range of fascinating habitats from upland pine forests, prairies and cypress swamps to mangrove swamps, hardwood hammocks, and the sheltered waters of the Florida Keys. We take in the famous Ding Darling NWR for its waterbirds, Babcock-Webb WMA for the pine trio of Red-cockaded Woodpecker, Bachman’s Sparrow and Brown-headed Nuthatch, Everglades National Park for Mottled Duck, Limpkin, Wood Stork, Roseate Spoonbill, Snail Kite, Swallow-tailed Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Purple Gallinule and others, and the Keys for southern Florida specialties such as Mangrove Cuckoo and White-crowned Pigeon.

We also take a day trip to the fabulous Dry Tortugas, to witness the onset of breeding by thousands of Sooty Terns, Brown Noddies and Magnificent Frigatebirds. We end our tour in the Miami area, where several exotic species have become naturalized – various parakeets and parrots, mynas, exotic waterbirds, Red-whiskered Bulbuls and Spot-breasted Orioles are resident here. We will also keep track of local sightings, in case a vagrant occurs close by.