The 55th annual Miami (Dade County) Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 14. On count day, 38 participants counted 11,491 birds of 115 species in spite of intermittent rain and gusty winds throughout the day. Compared with 2023, there were 1,696 less birds counted and 13 less species. Of the 115 species tallied, 108 are on the official Florida state bird list and are considered “countable,” while the remaining seven are not on the state bird list and are thus not considered “countable.”
Though no new species for this count were reported on count day this year, two species, Hooded Merganser and Bell’s Vireo, were reported for only the second time in count history. A pair of Hooded Mergansers was found by the Miami Beach team at the Normandy Shores golf course. The Bell’s Vireo was found in a restricted area by the team covering Oleta River State Park. Other unusual species included a Louisiana Waterthrush, seen at Greynolds Park and only seen on 12 previous counts, and a Yellow Warbler, seen at Miami Beach Botanical Garden and only seen on 8 previous counts. The 57 Lesser Black-backed Gulls seen this year was a new high count for this species and was the only species that set a new high count. No species set new low counts.
It should be noted that the vagrant Yellow-headed Caracara, which has been present at Oleta River State Park and adjacent areas for months and possibly years, was not seen on count day, but it was photographed two days before the day of the count. Unfortunately, this sighting was not made by a registered CBC participant, so by CBC rules, it is not allowed to be included in the results as a “count week” species. Update: The Florida CBC compilers have decided that the Yellow-headed Caracara can be listed as a count week bird!
Thanks to the following teams for their assistance during the count (team leaders listed first):
Downtown Miami – Bob and Alice Pace, Jeanette Rawls
El Portal – Stephen and Omar Paez
Greynold's Park - John Boyd, Nancy Freedman, Debbie and Greg Jones
Little Havana - Dennis Olle, Miriam Avello, James Jones, Leigh Emerson Smith, Bertha Vazquez, Facel Vega, Rohan Harihara, Erica Rochelle, Amanda Bluck, Ana Lima
Little River – Erik Johnson (this area was covered for the first time since 2003!)
Miami Beach – Brian Rapoza, Luis Gonzalez
Miami Shores - Andrea Diamond, Keith and Karen Roberts, Ann Martinez
Miami Springs – Noah Frade
Oleta River State Park - Liz Golden, Klenisson Brenner, Himanshu Gupta, Mark Hendrixson
Opa-Locka - Fritz (Boch) Hoeflein, Sarah Schwartz, Brandon Trentler, Raul Urgelles, Steve Woodmansee
Virginia Key – Min Zhao, Huang Hanchen
At the end of count day, participants assembled at Tropical Audubon Society’s historic Doc Thomas House headquarters to report their findings and enjoy a Pasta & Pizza Party. TAS is extremely grateful to all of the volunteers who made the 2024 count possible, and to Leica Store Miami, which so generously sponsored the CBC Miami festivities!
Following are the totals for each species (non-countable species in italics, last year’s total in parenthesis):
Swan Goose (Domestic type) – 2 (0)
Graylag Goose (Domestic type) – 2 (3)
Egyptian Goose – 83 (79)
Muscovy Duck (Domestic type) – 175 (215)
Mottled Duck – 9 (2)
Blue-winged Teal – 5 (5)
Ring-necked Duck – 12 (42)
Lesser Scaup – 4 (3)
Hooded Merganser 2 (0)
Indian Peafowl (Domestic type) – 21 (17)
Pied-billed Grebe – 8 (34)
Wood Stork – 18 (66)
Magnificent Frigatebird – 8 (49)
Northern Gannet – 3 (19)
Double-crested Cormorant – 525 (647)
Anhinga – 21 (21)
Brown Pelican – 215 (219)
Great Blue Heron – 13 (26)
Great Egret – 118 (34)
Snowy Egret – 13 (2)
Little Blue Heron – 10 (8)
Tricolored Heron – 25 (5)
Cattle Egret – 200 (143)
Green Heron – 14 (12)
Black-crowned Night-Heron – 6 (1)
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron – 15 (17)
White Ibis – 1800 (2650)
Black Vulture – 53 (52)
Turkey Vulture – 1500 (850)
Osprey – 24 (25)
Cooper's Hawk – 6 (8)
Red-shouldered Hawk – 4 (10)
Broad-winged Hawk – 2 (5)
Short-tailed Hawk – 7 (6)
Red-tailed Hawk – 3 (2)
Common Gallinule – 57 (84)
American Coot – 59 (152)
Limpkin – 2 (2)
Black-bellied Plover – 220 (98)
Semipalmated Plover – 23 (4)
Piping Plover – 12 (0)
Killdeer – 6 (5)
Spotted Sandpiper – 3 (3)
Willet – 1 (2)
Ruddy Turnstone – 16 (15)
Sanderling – 120 (26)
Short-billed Dowitcher – 5 (12)
Laughing Gull – 1225 (1177)
Ring-billed Gull – 120 (85)
Herring Gull – 4 (18)
Lesser Black-backed Gull – 57 (39)
Great Black-backed Gull 1 (0)
Royal Tern – 64 (50)
Sandwich Tern – 4 (3)
Black Skimmer – 68 (55)
Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) – 580 (305)
Eurasian Collared-Dove – 345 (282)
White-winged Dove – 8 (7)
Mourning Dove – 80 (180)
Eastern Screech-Owl – 4 (4)
Ruby-throated Hummingbird – 14 (16)
Belted Kingfisher – 13 (4)
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 78 (58)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 22 (14)
Downy Woodpecker – 13 (4)
Pileated Woodpecker – 2 (0)
Yellow-headed Caracara - count week
American Kestrel – 40 (59)
Merlin – 4 (4)
Peregrine Falcon – 2 (1)
Monk Parakeet – 93 (13)
Yellow-chevroned Parakeet – 50 (8)
Orange-winged Parrot – 9 (8)
Chestnut-fronted Macaw -10 (0)
Blue-crowned Parakeet - 30 (0)
Mitred Parakeet – 39 (36)
Red-masked Parakeet – 33 (26)
White-eyed Parakeet – 160 (23)
Eastern Phoebe – 18 (25)
Loggerhead Shrike – 7 (10)
Bell’s Vireo – 1 (0)
Yellow-throated Vireo – 5 (2)
Blue-headed Vireo – 6 (16)
Blue Jay – 62 (101)
Fish Crow – 600 (1633)
House Wren – 2 (2)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 135 (177)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 1 (1)
Gray Catbird – 11 (16)
Northern Mockingbird – 140 (166)
European Starling – 1000 (1113)
Ovenbird – 2 (2)
Louisiana Waterthrush – 1 (1)
Northern Waterthrush – 1 (3)
Black-and-white Warbler – 32 (43)
Orange-crowned Warbler – 9 (9)
Common Yellowthroat – 5 (6)
American Redstart – 14 (17)
Cape May Warbler – 11 (3)
Northern Parula – 44 (29)
Magnolia Warbler – 1 (1)
Yellow Warbler – 1 (2)
Black-throated Blue Warbler – 15 (8)
Palm Warbler - 285 (339)
Pine Warbler – 46 (18)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) - 55 (93)
Yellow-throated Warbler – 18 (11)
Prairie Warbler – 24 (22)
Black-throated Green Warbler – 3 (4)
Summer Tanager – 3 (1)
Northern Cardinal – 32 (33)
Indigo Bunting - 1 (9)
Common Grackle – 47 (421)
Boat-tailed Grackle – 150 (164)
Spot-breasted Oriole – 1 (5)
Baltimore Oriole – 3 (1)
House Sparrow – 73 (126)
Yellow Warbler: Photo by Brian Rapoza