Family Birding: Part 1 - Orlando

Florida might be the ultimate family holiday. Every child dreams of visiting the theme parks, and even the most skeptical visitor cannot help but be impressed by their scale. Fantastic weather, great villas and hotels and easy travel make a holiday destination that would be enjoyed by virtually any family. I have been to Florida 3 times, and these have been some of the best holidays of my life.

It is unusual though that such a great family destination can simultaneously offer such great birding.

Without leaving the confines of the theme parks, you could easily rack up a long trip list. In 3 trips in March/April, with only a handful of visits to actual bird reserves,  I have seen a total of 137 species in Florida! The parks are vast, and have many green spaces which allow for casual birding while you go on rides. Great birds really can be seen in the most unlikely spots.

I have seen a White-winged Dove on the Dr Seuss Trolley Ride in Universal IOA, I have seen a Limpkin at Disney Boardwalk and Prairie Warbler in a supermarket car park. These birds would probably be considered targets on a proper Florida birding trip, let alone a family holiday.

Daily Birds: 

The first thing you will realise is that birds are everywhere in Florida. Not on the level of somewhere like Ecuador but certainly a surprise to someone who's only birded in Europe. Wherever you choose to spend your day, Common & Boat-tailed Grackles, Black & Turkey Vultures, American & Fish Crows, Northern Cardinals, Mourning Dove and Northern Mockingbirds are almost always on show. 

Other birds you might expect to happen across on a day at the parks include Red-bellied Woodpecker, Palm Warbler, Blue Jay, Tree Swallow, Grey Catbird, Ring-billed Gull (last three winter & spring only), Carolina Wren, Yellow-rumped Warbler, Downy Woodpecker, Chimney Swift and Red-shouldered Hawk. Common Nighthawk can be seen at dusk in the summer.

You will quickly notice that there are ponds and lakes everywhere - these lakes hold a huge variety of Egrets and Herons and most days, no matter which theme park you visit, you might expect to see Anhinga, Double-crested Cormorant, Wood Stork, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Snowy Egret, Tricoloured Heron, Little Blue Heron, Great Blue Heron, Green Heron, Sandhill Crane and White Ibis in a single day! Indeed, I saw every bird on that list on the 1 hour drive from Tampa Airport to the villa during 2018. 

Driving along the Interstate you might see Glossy Ibis, any of the herons above, Pied-billed Grebe and Red-winged Blackbird. The eagle-eyed might spot Loggerhead Shrikes on the wires or Wild Turkeys hiding in the verges. I have even seen Limpkin on Palm Palkway in central Orlando! As if this wasn't enough, Ospreys occupy every few lampposts - a sight to make most British birders pinch themselves.

Great Egrets are common

The best bird for me though is Swallow-tailed Kite - in spring I have seen these stunning birds in all sorts of locations - over the villa, from the Interstate and even over a shopping mall! Truly one of the world's best birds.

Roseate Spoonbills are a definite possibility even in the most urban of areas. Their fluorescent pink plumage is enough to make any European birder's eyes water.

Resorts & Villas:

The dry scrubby habitat around the newly built resorts and villas offer a different assortment of species to the parks. Red-winged Blackbirds fly around the reedy lakes, Sandhill Cranes walk on the sandy ground and White-eyed Vireos call from the scrub. 

In the areas around the villas I have previously stayed I have found Northern Parula, Common Yellowthroat, Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Phoebe, Swallow-tailed Kite, Red-tailed Hawk and Loggerhead Shrike.

You might be lucky enough to have a villa surrounding one of the many lakes and ponds and in 2015, we could see around 10 species of heron/egret without leaving the pool.

In 2018, we had an Armadillo that visited our villa every evening!

The Orlando Parks:

As well as the usual daily fare, you can find some truly fantastic birds in the theme parks themselves. I have seen Limpkin at Sea World, Universal and calling loudly just a metre from the Disney Boardwalk, White-winged Dove at Universal IOA and Volcano Bay and Roseate Spoonbill from the top of a slide queue at Aquatica and near Discovery Cove.

Purple Martins nest in a designated nest site behind "Test Track'' in Epcot and Wood Storks stand sentinel around the sea lion enclosure at Sea World hoping to steal some fish.

At Universal Islands of Adventure I have seen Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (in the splash zone of the Jurassic Park ride!), Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Ring-necked Duck, Lesser Scaup (both on the car park lake), White-eyed Vireo, Northern Flicker and Brown Pelican.

Kennedy Space Centre: 

This popular tourist attraction is situated on Merritt Island on the east coast, which puts it in a good position for a new set of birds for your holiday list. 

Merritt Island Wildlife Refuge just up the road would perhaps be 'family-approved' as a birding stop to accompany a trip to the Space Centre (being just a few miles away) and the specialities here include Florida Scrub Jay, Reddish Egret and Black Skimmer. 

I have seen other awesome birds here too such as Sora, Northern Harrier, Painted Bunting, Caspian Tern and Roseate Spoonbill. Pileated Woodpecker is possible.

The birding here is done solely from the car (making it more popular with young children) and a drive around Black Point Wildlife Drive (seven miles long) should turn up Black Skinmer, Reddish Egret, Belted Kingfisher, White Pelican, Roseate Spoonbill and a whole host of shorebirds like both Yellowlegs, Willet, Dowitchers, Least Sandpiper etc. You are also guaranteed close views of very large Alligators.

Florida Scrub Jays are pretty much guaranteed in the car park of the Scrub Ridge Trail, this endemic is a big target for visiting birders.

On our visit, we were lucky enough to time our visit with the Manatees - ask in the visitor centre for whether they are around. This was one of the most incredible wildlife experiences, watching these huge animals floating just metres from the river bank.

Even if you can’t convince your family that the diversion to Merritt Island is worth it, the journey to Kennedy SC could give Wild Turkey, Crested Caracara, Bald Eagle and lots more besides. Being on the coast, you will also see a few species that are scarce inland like Laughing Gull, Brown Pelican and Royal Tern.

Boggy Creek Airboats:

This is a hidden gem and is sure to be a hit with a family. They offer hoverboat rides across a large lake, as well as stops to search for Alligators. Bald Eagle, Glossy Ibis, Belted Kingfisher, Limpkin, Forster's Tern and Wilson's Snipe are all very likely here, along with an exhilarating ride and great views.

You can go as a scheduled or private tour. The bonus of a private tour is that you can tell the driver that you are interested in birds and they will incorporate this into the trip (though they may do so for scheduled tours too). Our driver was fantastic and when I told him about my interest in birds, he incorporated good spots on the lake for the main birding draw of the area. Snail Kite! We got great views of this rare raptor, which is always hard to find, even in the Everglades.

Snail Kite at Boggy Creek

Champions Gate Publix Supermarket:

Of course this is not a place to visit in itself, but I've included it as a testament to the birding potential of pretty much anywhere in Florida. Every year that we have been to Florida, we have stayed in the Champions Gate area, and we do our shopping in the nearby Publix supermarket. Whenever my parents are shopping I spend time watching the small pool in the car park and the trees around it. 

Over the years, I have accumulated quite an impressive car park list: Mottled Duck, Boat-tailed Grackle, Bald Eagle, Little Blue Heron, Prairie Warbler, Cedar Waxwing, Downy Woodpecker, Red-shouldered Hawk, Chimney Swift and many Alligators. Now imagine that in a Sainsbury's car park in UK!

Disney Wilderness Preserve:

Disclaimer: this is not a Disney park! It is a nature reserve formed by an agreement between Disney and the Nature Conservancy. However, being just outside of Orlando, it could be viable as an early morning solo birding trip or offer an interesting family walk in classic Floridian grassland and woodland habitat.

There are lots of birds on offer here which you are unlikely to be seen anywhere else.

A morning visit is important for Bachman's Sparrow (a rare resident and a speciality here), but in the morning I was lucky to find several singing birds.

Other target birds I have seen here are Pine Warbler, Tufted Titmouse and Eastern Bluebird. 

Red-headed Woodpecker, Brown-headed Nuthatch and even Red-cockaded Woodpecker are apparently possible.

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, Brown Thrasher, House Wren, Eastern Towhee, Eastern Meadowlawk, Wood Duck and Common Ground-Dove are reasonably easy here but difficult elsewhere.

I have also seen one of my favourite American birds - Black-and-White Warbler!

 

The West Coast:

Just like the east, a trip to the west coast will offer lots of new species for a birder who's spent the majority of the holiday inland. There are many reasons why a family might want to make a day trip to the west coast, especially a visit to the city of Tampa or a trip to the beach; Busch Gardens in Tampa is a popular theme park and Clearwater Beach is a famous beach location.

Brown Pelican, Laughing Gull and Least Tern should be reasonably easy in this area, even without any birding. Also, I have seen lots of Loggerhead Shrikes driving through St. Petersburg. An introduced population of Nanday Parakeets are also quite easy to spot.

For birders new to the tropics, a huge birding draw of this area of coast is Magnificent Frigatebird. They breed on small islands in and around Tampa bay and can be seen at either of the two locations below, but also realistically possible anywhere around the coast here. I have seen them on every visit to Fort de Soto.

Due to the proximity of their nest sites to the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, they would surely be a good bet simply by driving the 275 south of St. Petersburg.

Honeymoon Island, just up the coast, is another good spot for a beach day and perhaps less crowded, offering a great combination of birding and beach. Here you can see some classic Florida targets like Whiskered Vireo, Grey Kingbird and Piping & Wilson's Plover. At migration times you can see a huge range of warblers, vireos, thrushes etc. and the coast here is always good for shorebirds, Caspian Tern and Black Skimmer.

The birding gem of this area, though, is Fort de Soto. Although it is not in the spirit of this post to write about designated bird reserves, this site doubles up as a popular tourist destination and couldn't be better for a day of combining family and birding. The beaches here are spectacular and very popular. There is an old fort and fantastic Floridian scenery, very similar I imagine to that of the Florida keys.

The birds here are something else. A visit during migration will offer a birding experience which is unparalleled in the area. A full list of every bird that could be seen here would fill a whole post in itself, and there are plenty of resources online that showcase its potential, not least the eBird checklist of 345 species!

Instead, I will recount a visit of mine on the 5th of Aparil 2018 (not even peak migration) for just a few short hours before our flight home from Tampa Airport. This might be a feasible length of time to get for solo birding, while the rest of the family enjoys the tourist attractions, if they are not keen on accompanying for the birdwatching. It remains one of my best ever day's birding, timed perfectly with a great day of migration.

One of the first birds I saw was Magnificent Frigatebird, thermalling over the main road bridge into the area. A huge personal target. We pulled up at the Mulberry Tree Area (this is the area of wooded trails past the warden's house, east of the eastern end of the Bay Pier car park). 

It became immediately clear that there were migrants present and we quickly saw Indigo Bunting, Orchard Oriole, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Tennessee, Prairie, Palm, Black-and-White and Yellow-rumped Warblers. A large flock of Nanday Parakeets made their presence known as they flew over. What a start! 

Moving further into the woods we found two of the best new-world warblers and probably my main target birds of the day and the trip - Prothonotary Warbler and Worm-eating Warbler! 

The main shorebird spots at Fort de Soto are North Beach (walking north along the beach from the North beach car park to the small lagoon) and East Beach turnaround (the birds can be seen right from the car here). In both these locations we found Semipalmated, Wilson's and Black-bellied Plovers, Sanderling, Least Sandpiper, Marbled Godwit, Dunlin, Willet, Turnstone and Short-billed Dowitcher amongst others. Night Heron and Reddish Egrets were the standouts from a good selection of herons, and Royal Terns, Brown and White Pelicans were everywhere.

In the North Beach car park we saw more Black-and-White Warblers and a mind-blowing 3 Prothonotary Warblers together. An Eastern Kingbird flew over the East Beach turnaround.

Heading to the Arrowhead Car Park, we were tipped off about a Yellow-billed Cuckoo near the old toilet block and added this skulking bird to our list. On the Arrowhead Trail we also saw two unusual migrants - Ovenbird and Yellow-throated Vireo. We watched the Ovenbird for several minutes as it foraged on the path in front of us, jumping up to take insects from tiny saplings! 

We headed back to the mulberry trees, and the day wasn't quite done. The warbler activity had died down considerably but there was still time to find some more migrants - a Red-eyed Vireo and a Cliff Swallow flew overhead. 

This day will live long in my memory as one of the best birding days of my life. It is nearly impossible to pick a favourite bird, when there are so many standouts to choose from, but the award must go to Prothonotary Warbler - this improbably bright bird has been on my World Target List since I was very young and was just as spectacular in reality.

Summary:

If you take one thing from this post, I hope it's that Florida really can provide the very best birding and classic holiday fun. It is sure to be a popular destination for any family, and if the birder in you had been resisting a trip for fear of a concrete jungle, a melée tourists and no wildlife, then maybe its time to put on some Mickey Mouse ears and book the flights.

I hope that this post has provided some inspiration and perhaps some instruction on which of the tourist spots can be most productive for birds.

(Photos taken by my sister Rebecca Coward)