Experience the Best Birding in the Everglades!

Introduction

The Everglades in Florida is a true birding paradise, especially if you are a beginner birder or just appreciate watching birds. This article will tell you all you need to know to enjoy birding in the Everglades, even if you are not an experienced birder. It also shows what I was able to do even taking account my walking disability. (I use hiking poles due to my MS)

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• What are the Everglades? Quick intro
• Anhinga trail (wheelchair accessible), featuring an alligator, cormorants, anhingas and gallinules.
• Flamingo Visitor Center, with white pelicans, great egrets, a wood stork, ospreys, crocodiles, herons, manatees and more.
• Mrazek Pond, starring herons, egrets, roseate spoonbills, and a sneaky alligator.
• Paurotis Pond, discovering black and turkey vultures and a roseate spoonbill colony.
• Conclusion
• Further reading

What are the Everglades?

Everglades National Park is an American national park and the largest tropical wilderness in the United States. Everglades, after Death Valley and Yellowstone is the third-largest national park in the contiguous United States. 1976, UNESCO declared the Everglades & Dry Tortugas an UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. (Just like Sian Ka’an). A few years later, in 1979, UNESCO listed the park as a World Heritage Site.

The Everglades are a network of wetlands and forests fed by a river flowing out of Lake Okeechobee into Florida Bay. The park is the most significant breeding ground for tropical wading birds in North America and contains the largest mangrove ecosystem in the Western Hemisphere. You can find panthers, alligators, crocodiles, manatees and 350 species of birds. So it is an excellent place to go birding!

Anhinga Trail (wheel chair accesible)

When we arrived to go birding in the Everglades, it was late in the afternoon, so we knew we couldn’t spend much time that day. First we made a quick stop at the Ernest F. Coe visitor center for some basic information. Then we quickly drove to the Anhinga Trail. It is only 0.8 miles (1200 m) long and partly on boardwalks. The trail winds through a sawgrass marsh. Excellent for easy birding. This trail is wheelchair accessible.

It is located next to the Gumbo Limbo trail which also is wheelchair accessible, so both trails are great for people with walking disabilities or families with children in strollers.

Even better was that there were some experienced birders who helped us identify species that we did not know.

Where is the Anhinga trail?

You can find the trail at the Royal Palm Visitor Center, four miles (6 km) from the main park entrance in Homestead/ Ernest F Coe Visitor Center.

Which Birds will we see?

The first thing we saw actually was not a bird, but one of the many alligators. What a treat to see them up close like this!

Cormorants

After the excitement of seeing our first alligator, we noticed two double-crested cormorants sitting on the railing. They were not at all bothered by the visitors walking past them, but just sat and relaxed while people admired them and took many pictures.

Cormorants are diving birds, mostly eat fish, small eels and even water snakes. Because their frequent dives, usually it is hard to get a picture of them on the water, so we welcomed these nice easy targets. When cormorants are on land, you often can see them with their wings spread, to dry them out.

Anhingas

I have to admit that I never had heard of anhingas till we found the anhinga trail. We were lucky enough to witness some of them during our hike. Anhingas remind me of cormorants, but their neck is longer.

They dry their wings in a similar fashion to the cormorants. An anhinga is sometimes called a “snake bird” for its long snakelike neck as it slithers through the water. In addition to the males we saw, we observed a female, easy to distinguish from males.

Gallinules

While growing up in the Netherlands, we saw tons of American coots, which are “boring” black and white. Surprisingly enough we discovered their groovy cousins in the Everglades, purple gallinules. What an interesting and colorful adaptation!

Not only did we see this mature one, but we also had the pleasure of seeing a juvenile. It was fascinating to watch them walk on top of the water lilies with their big feet, looking for food. They sure have a better sense of balance than I do.

Flamingo Visitor Center

The next day, we had a full day of birding planned in the Everglades and we saw many amazing birds and other animals. We started at the Flamingo Visitor Center.

This visitor center is wheelchair accessible by a steep ramp although the center was closed when we visited, so I don’t know about the inside.

Where is the Flamingo Visitor Center?

The Flamingo Visitor Center is 38 miles from the Homestead entry, past the Coe Visitor Center. It is a beautiful drive through marshlands and we saw many egrets, herons, and vultures while driving. This visitor center is as far south as you can drive in the park. Sadly, it had been closed since Irma caused major damage in September 2017 but the marina was still open.

At the Marina, the Marina store is open and you can buy simple food there and sign up for boat tours, either back country or the Florida Bay. In addition, you can rent kayaks, but I have to admit I wasn’t keen on the idea of kayaking with the crocodiles. We saw crocodiles up close in Costa Rica and I have a healthy respect for them.

Which Birds could we see?

American White Pelicans

Our visit started off with a birding bang while we were driving around getting our bearings. Suddenly, we saw a lot of huge birds soar, in squadron formation, but we could not figure out what they were. At first they reminded us of snow geese, but it did not seem quite right.

We tried to follow them to their landing place, and after some mindless back and forth driving we found Eco Pond where they were hanging out. Once we saw them on the water it was very clear that they must be American white pelicans. Hundreds of them coming and going. Wow!

Great Egrets

On our way to the visitor center, we saw a bunch of great egrets and there were more of them here, at the same pond as the white pelicans. You can see one in the background of the pelican picture at Eco Pond. Here is a picture of them up close.

Wood Stork

While we were still blown over by the awesomeness of these white pelicans, we noticed another wading bird on the shore. That one turned out to be a wood stork, another new bird species to me, so that was a bonus on top of the white pelicans. I could not figure out what it was while we were there, but the picture I took was good enough to identify it as a wood stork in hindsight, when we were back home.

Beginner birding hint, or maybe all birders: look into the Merlin application which helps you identify birds if you have a picture of them or even if you do not have a picture.

Ospreys

Regretfully we had to leave Eco Pond and our new bird friends to continue our birding in the Everglades, in this case the Marina at Flamingo visitor center. It didn’t take long before we spotted this osprey nest, right next to the marina building and enjoyed a good look at this white bellied raptor.

We appreciated the ease of seeing this nesting bird, it makes birding a lot easier when the bird is right there. Later, we saw more of them when we took our boat tour. But first: a crocodile right in the harbor!

This crocodile wasn’t the only amazing animal we noticed. In addition to the crocodile there were two manatees swimming around. I had never seen them in the wild, so I treasured their show, although I have to admit I would have loved them to stay visible long enough to get a good picture.

When we found out that we could take a boat tour, it did not take long for us to decide to go for it. Carpe diem! They had two tours available, one into the Florida Bay, the other one into the mangrove estuary. Because the Florida Bay departed first, we chose that one, but I would love to do the other one at another time.

Brown Pelicans

We quickly spotted another ubiquitous water bird, the brown pelican. This was the first one we spotted, but we saw many more throughout our day.

While we were heading out of the marina, we saw many birds, including some more white pelicans, cormorants and gulls. This picture clearly shows how big the white pelicans are compared to the cormorants.

Blue Heron White Morph

Surprisingly, our guide pointed out this white bird which I had pegged as a great egret. It was in fact a great blue heron, white morph, which can be distinguished from the great egret by the color of its legs. The great egret ones has black ones, while the blue heron white mold’s are grey in color. Very interesting and new tidbit of birding knowledge!

Dolphins

As if the day was not fabulous already, we found a pod of dolphins which had fun popping up around the boat and giving us a show. I always love seeing dolphins, we also saw them in another biosphere reserve, Sian Ka’an in Mexico.

On the boat ride back we saw more water birds, herons and ospreys, but mostly we simply enjoyed being on the water, away from our New Hampshire snow.

Mrazek Pond

Heading back to the park, we were driving along till we saw a pull-off at Mrazek Pond with many people pulled over, taking pictures. Given the fact there was an abundance of birds to be seen in the trees and the water, we jumped out and started taking pictures too. While we were happily birding with our cameras and binoculars to our eyes, we ignored the ground right in front of us. Until someone pointed out: “Don’t miss the alligator.” As in the alligator which was patiently waiting right in front of us to take advantage of foolish birders…

When I told this story to our friend who grew up in Florida, he claimed “Oh, if you had bumped into him, he would just have gotten up and moved away.” but I have no desire to ever test his theory.

Which Birds?

So my Public Service Announcement for birders in the Everglades: “Look out of alligators before you look for birds!” That said, there were tons of birds to be seen here also.

Roseate Spoonbill

At Mrazek Pond we were happy to observe roseate spoonbills since these are such flamboyant birds. When we were planning our birding trip to the Everglades, I had hoped to see flamingos. Since we did not see any of them, these spoonbills were a satisfying substitute.

Green heron

While we were watching all the white and roseate birds, we noticed another heron, which turned out to be a green heron. (Thank you, Merlin, for help with that identification)

Paurotis Pond

Another good place to stop is Paurotis Pond. It is just a parking lot and a pond, no hiking needed to watch some fun birds there.

Black Vultures

Surprisingly, here we found some black vultures just hanging out in the parking lot. I don’t think I have ever been this close to vultures. Actually, it was the firs him, he would just have gotten up and moved away.t time I saw a black vulture that I easily could identify. Usually they fly up too high to make out the head color distinguishing them from the turkey vulture.

As a bonus, there is a roseate spoonbills colony across the water. It wasn’t easy to see them that far away, but it was still a pleasure to watch them fly on and off.

Turkey Vultures

It was a lot easier to get a picture of the turkey vulture in a nearby tree. Super cool to see both black vultures and turkey vultures so up close. Notice the red head color on the turkey vulture.

Conclusion about Birding in The Everglades

There are many birds to watch in the Everglades, even without having to hike a lot or to get up early. Some of the hiking trails are wheelchair accessible. This article is not an extensive review of each location and each birding possibility, but it should give you a good idea of the natural richness in the Everglades and its accessibility. Go and find out for yourself, but be careful for alligators and crocodiles!

Have you been to the Everglades? Did you see many birds? Any good alligator encounters? What was your favorite trail / experience?

Other UNESCO World Heritage Sites To Visit

World Heritage Sites in the Americas

• Sian Ka’an Biosphere in Mexico: where the sun was born;
• The Everglades: both a UNESCO World Heritage Site and a Biosphere Reserve;
• The Statue of Liberty in New York City, USA;
• Take an Alaska cruise and visit Glacier Bay National Park;
• Go watch whales in Quebec City;
• Puerto Rico Does it Better! Old San Juan and fun facts about Puerto Rico

World Heritage Sites in Europe

• Paris around the Seine;
• Waldorf Astoria Amsterdam: right in the middle of the historic Canals District;
• Passau, Germany, often the start or end of a Danube river cruise;
• Matera, Italy: the oldest continually habituated place in the world, also called the City of Caves;

Where to Stay when you visit the Everglades

• Hotels around the Everglades;
• Things To Do

Further Reading

• America’s Everglades – The largest subtropical wilderness in the United States. The official National Parks Services web site for the Everglades.
• Mobility Trip Planning for your Everglades visit. All you need to know about access people with disabilities for your trip to go birding in the Everglades. Here you will find a list of all the wheelchair accessible trails.
• Everglades National Park: 10 tips for visiting the park. Good USA Today article, talking about slough slugging, camping, biking and even geocaching.
• Homestead Trolley to the National Parks Homestead invites its residents, neighbors, and visitors to explore Everglades and Biscayne National Parks, and Homestead Bayfront Park with a free guided trolley ride from Historic Downtown Homestead EVERY WEEKEND December 29, 2018 through April 21, 2019.
• Sian Ka’an, where the sun was born. Another UNESCO world heritage site and biosphere reserve.

Birding Around The World

• Birds, Dolphins and Fish Poop: Discover Sian Ka’an, a UNESCO World Heritage Site;
• Eagles galore!
• Invasive Alien Birds in Hawai’i: don’t get fooled by their beauty;
• Life time bucket list: follow Thousands of Snow Geese;
• Watch a heron take out a crocodile!
• The best birding in Costa Rica;
• Explore Isla Contoy in Calcun;
• When hiking is too hard: birds on the Manoa Falls Trail;
• Kennebunkport Maine has good birding hotspots;
• Famous bird painting for booklovers: Where is The Goldfinch Painting now? and how it doesn’t even LOOK like a goldfinch;
• Lots of incidental birding on an Alaska Cruise;
• Last but not least: why birding is the best way to socially distance;

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