Birding on Florida’s Gulf Coast

My recent visit to Florida’s Gulf Coast introduced me to loads of new birds! I took tons of pictures and tediously tried to identify each bird I saw! It was so much fun and now I would like to share my findings with you!

Northern Mockingbird: I saw lots of these at my grandparents house!

Immature Red-shouldered Hawk: He was an imposing visitor to the backyard bird feeder.

Common Merganser

Ring-billed Gull

American Oystercatcher: My favorite shore bird!

Piping Plover

White Ibis: Another one of my favorite Florida birds!

Common Gallinule: Look closely and you will find him floating amongst the pond lilies. This bird has been on my birding bucket list for a while.

Carolina Wren

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Limpkin: Another bird that was on my birding buck list!

Black-crowned Night- Heron

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher

White-eyed Vireo: Look very closely in the center of the photo and you may see the yellow spot surrounding the vireo’s eye.

Least Sandpiper: Categorized as a ‘peep’, this little guy was hard to identify between all the other look alike ‘peeps’.

Semi-palmated Plover

Western Sandpiper: Another ‘peep’, he was easier to identify due to his curved beak and slightly larger size.

Black Skimmer: Definitely on my top favorite shorebird list, these guys have also been on my birding bucket list.

Laughing Gull

Double-crested Cormorant

Ruddy Turnstone

Royal Tern

Immature Little Blue Heron (eating a crab)

Great Egret

Whimbrel

Horned Grebe

Forester’s Tern

Osprey: A very common, somewhat of a nuisance bird, in Florida.

Black-bellied Plover

Marbled Godwit

Brown Pelican

Sanderling: He is the little white bird in the center of the photo with his head turned back.

Willet: The willet was an easily identified bird with it’s drab gray coloring. You can get a better glimpse of the sanderling in the bottom left hand corner of the photo.

Now for a few un-identified birds: If you want, you can help me identify them by doing some research and commenting below this post!

Photo 1

The un-identified birds are in the center of the photo and are surrounded by willets.

Photo 2

You can get a glimpse of this birds beak by looking directly above the bird in the foreground. There is another of it’s kind right above it.

Photo 3

The birds in question here are the three standing above the two willets laying down with their beaks tucked in. You can get a glimpse of another one of these birds in the sanderling photo. It is standing slightly to the right of the sanderling.

If you question any of my identifications, please feel free to comment about your opinion. I always try to identify all the birds I see accurately but sometimes I make a mistake!

I would love to hear from you!

By Alexa

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