Trip Date: February 2017 | Location: Florida
A business trip to the east coast of Florida provided the perfect opportunity to blend work with our passion for birding. Our primary targets were the colorful, non-native parrots and parakeets that thrive in the South Florida urban jungle.
The Bananaquit Chase
Our quest began at Richardson Historic Park in Fort Lauderdale, where a Bananaquit had been reported daily for weeks. We arrived around 5:00 p.m. to find a fellow birder who had been searching unsuccessfully for three days. Unfortunately, our target bird had moved on just before our arrival.
The outing wasn’t a total bust, however. As the sprinklers came on, we were treated to a female Blue-throated Warbler, Painted Buntings, and a flyover of Blue-crowned Parakeets.
From Work to Wildlife
Friday was dedicated to the Graphics of the Americas and the Miami International Boat Show. While at the docks, Mike spotted a manatee that drew quite a crowd—a fun, non-birding highlight. Later that day, we caught up with the always-reliable Monk Parakeets on Lincoln Road. This was a perfect lead-in to our weekend parrot hunt.
A Weekend of Parrots and a Mega-Rarity
On Saturday morning, we arrived at Miller Roost near Brewer Park, greeted by the unmistakable squawks of parakeets. We quickly located both Mitred and Red-masked Parakeets in the local kumquat trees. It was a great opportunity to compare the two: Mitred Parakeets feature a red forehead with speckling, while Red-masked Parakeets display a full red hood and red on the wing bend.
Our friend Joe Welch, a relatively new birder, joined us and earned serious kudos for identifying our first-ever Orange-winged Parrot in flight—no easy feat! We searched the neighborhood for the Chestnut-fronted Macaw, but found that their former palm tree nesting site is now occupied by European Starlings. We did, however, see our first-of-year Ruby-throated Hummingbirds.
With a gap in our schedule, we headed to Bill Baggs State Park to join about 30 other birders in the hunt for a reported mega-rarity, Kirtland’s Warbler. While the bird didn’t show, the camaraderie was excellent. For me, the “miss” was just fine; I’d prefer to see my first Kirtland’s in my home state of Michigan, where they breed.
A Successful Sunday
On our final morning, we headed to the Ocean Bank eBird hotspot. This chase involved driving slowly through a neighborhood, listening intently for calls. Our patience paid off when we successfully located a group of Yellow-chevroned Parakeets—a life bird!—including a mating pair. We also found a vacant wooded lot bustling with winter warblers and a power station that hosted several nesting Monk Parakeets.
Before heading to the boat show, we made a pit stop at La Sorpresa Supermarket for an amazing Cuban breakfast of homemade croissants and empanadas. With our energy renewed, our final birding stop was Crandon Park. This is a fantastic location for exotics, and we were rewarded with sightings of an Indian Peafowl and an Egyptian Goose. We also had a nice surprise encounter with some Sandhill Cranes. A quick walk on the beach rounded out the morning, netting the usual gulls and terns, plus a bonus Lesser Black-backed Gull.
This trip was a perfect blend of professional travel and our ongoing mission to track down Florida’s unique avian residents.
Trip Summary:
Trip Totals: 45 species • 2 (non-ABA countable) life birds
Next up: Tree Swallow Murmuration – 100,000 Tree Swallows in Hillsborough County, Florida
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