On Saturday, February 22, ten birders joined Brian Rapoza and Luis Gonzalez for Tropical Audubon’s annual Miami Exotics tour. The tour began at Tropical Park, where while waiting for all the participants to arrive, we tallied 24 different birds, including our first eight exotics: Egyptian Goose, Muscovy Duck, Red Junglefowl, Eurasian Collared-Dove, Yellow-chevroned Parakeet (heard only), Orange-winged Amazon (heard only), Red-masked Parakeet and European Starling. The 16 native birds recorded there were Common Gallinule, American Coot, Ring-billed Gull, Pied-billed Grebe, Double-crested Cormorant, White Ibis, Black Vulture, Turkey Vulture, Belted Kingfisher, Fish Crow, Red-winged Blackbird, Common Grackle, Boat-tailed Grackle, Palm Warbler, Pine Warbler and Northern Cardinal.
Once everyone had boarded our 15-passenger van, we headed east to South Miami, where we moved Yellow-chevroned Parakeet and Orange-winged Amazon from the heard list to the seen list and added three new exotics: Indian Peafowl, Rock Pigeon and House Sparrow. Native birds added to our trip list while in South Miami included White-winged Dove, Mourning Dove, Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Tricolored Heron, Osprey, Red-bellied Woodpecker, Downy Woodpecker, American Kestrel, Blue Jay, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher and Northern Mockingbird.
Next, we visited Pine Woods Park in The Falls area, where two more birds were added to our exotics list: Monk Parakeet and Scaly-breasted Munia. New birds added to our natives list included Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Cooper’s Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Eastern Phoebe, Yellow-rumped Warbler and Prairie Warbler. Heading next to Coral Reef Park in Palmetto Bay, we were greeted in the parking lot by a spectacular flock of a dozen Blue-and-yellow Macaws that swirled over our heads or perched in surrounding trees or on light poles. A few Mitred Parakeets were found among the Red-masked Parakeets that were perched in trees around the parking lot. Limpkin was the only new native species found there.
Our next stop was at Matheson Hammocks Park in Coral Gables, but we were unable to find anything new there, so we decided to take an early lunch break. After lunch at Shorty’s BBQ on US 1, we next headed west to the neighborhood across from Baptist Hospital on Kendall Drive, where another new exotic was found: Red-whiskered Bulbul. Two native species were added there: White-crowned Pigeon and Cedar Waxwing. We then continued west on Kendall Drive to a shopping center at 127 Avenue, where we added yet another new exotic to our list: Common Myna.
From there, we headed north on Florida’s Turnpike to the Dolphin Mall in Sweetwater, where Gray-headed Swamphen was added to our exotics list. New native species seen there included Anhinga, Green Heron, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Parula and Yellow-throated Warbler. We then drove east to Pine Tree Park on Miami Beach, where our last new parrot was added: White-eyed Parakeet. A Brown Pelican, seen as we crossed the Julia Tuttle Causeway, was added to our natives list. We then returned to South Miami to see if we could find any of the birds we missed during our earlier visit and added our final exotic for the trip: a beautiful pair of Spot-breasted Orioles. A Loggerhead Shrike seen in that same area was our last new native species for the trip.
We ended the day with 65 species, including 20 exotic species. All are listed in this eBird trip report.
Blue-and-yellow Macaws: Photo by Brian Rapoza