The 75th annual Coot Bay (Everglades National Park) Christmas Bird Count took place on Saturday, December 28. On count day, 26 volunteers counted 43,137 birds of 103 species, plus two additional taxa. The totals were 18,611 less birds and 16 less species than in 2023. Early morning rain may have contributed to the lower numbers.
Only two species were flagged as unusual this year. Two White-winged Doves were seen in the Flamingo residential area; this species had only been recorded on 15 previous counts. A Prothonotary Warbler was seen on the Coastal Prairie Trail; this species has only been recorded on 8 previous counts. No new high or low counts were set this year, nor were there any species reported as seen during count week only.
Thanks to the following teams for their assistance during the count (team leader listed first):
Bear Lake Road and Trail (on foot) – Charles Trent, Klenisson Brenner, Robert Carter and Victor Marquez
Coastal Prairie Trail (on foot) – Liz Golden, Miriam Avello, David Die, Enric Die and Robert Warren
Coot Bay, Whitewater Bay (motorboat) – Larry Manfredi, Philip Manfredi
Flamingo (by car and on foot) – Bob Pace, Alice Pace, Chris Campanaro, Esther Farbya, Adrian Hall, Elizabeth Hall, Jonathan Lau and Theodore Lau
Florida Bay (motorboat) – Pete Frezza and Sarah Curry
Main Park Road (by car and on foot) - Brian Rapoza and Luis Gonzalez
Snake Bight (kayak) - Elizabeth Hall and Adrian Hall
Snake Bight Trail (on foot) –Sue Wallenstein, Andrea Diamond and Walter Wallenstein
Following are the totals for each species (additional taxa in italics, last year’s total in parenthesis):
Green-winged Teal – 1 (0)
Lesser Scaup - 1850 (67)
Red-breasted Merganser - 4 (24)
Pied-billed Grebe – 18 (0)
American Flamingo - 54 (58)
Wood Stork - 13 (168)
Magnificent Frigatebird - 8 (8)
Double-crested Cormorant - 5350 (5700)
Anhinga - 11 (10)
American White Pelican - 4000 (3550)
Brown Pelican - 850 (960)
Great Blue Heron (Blue form) - 250 (102)
Great Blue Heron (White form) - 370 (293)
Great Blue Heron (Wurdemann's) - 1 (2)
Great Egret – 420 (880)
Snowy Egret – 880 (1000)
Little Blue Heron – 1020 (400)
Tricolored Heron – 170 (160)
Reddish Egret – 11 (18)
Cattle Egret – 2 (140)
Green Heron – 6 (15)
Black-crowned Night-Heron – 6 (6)
Yellow-crowned Night-Heron – 13 (23)
White Ibis – 1700 (2100)
Roseate Spoonbill – 320 (157)
Black Vulture – 35 (54)
Turkey Vulture – 190 (48)
Osprey – 75 (78)
Bald Eagle – 9 (15)
Red-shouldered Hawk – 9 (44)
Sora – 1 (2)
American Coot – 1 (2)
American Avocet – 11 (61)
Black-bellied Plover – 640 (500)
Wilson's Plover – 4 (5)
Semipalmated Plover – 530 (1460)
Spotted Sandpiper – 30 (24)
Greater Yellowlegs – 188 (58)
Willet – 1900 (2170)
Whimbrel – 47 (0)
Marbled Godwit – 300 (0)
Ruddy Turnstone – 5 (100)
Red Knot – 30 (34)
Stilt Sandpiper – 4 (0)
Sanderling – 75 (325)
Dunlin – 2850 (5070)
Least Sandpiper – 7150 (13770)
Western Sandpiper – 5700 (8730)
Short-billed Dowitcher – 2200 (5470)
Wilson’s Snipe – 2 (0)
Laughing Gull – 1240 (1350)
Ring-billed Gull – 19 (210)
Herring Gull – 1 (1)
Lesser Black-backed Gull – 18 (43)
Caspian Tern – 56 (70)
Forster's Tern – 29 (32)
Royal Tern – 480 (780)
Sandwich Tern – 13 (28)
Black Skimmer – 700 (2850)
White-crowned Pigeon – 23 (2)
Common Ground-Dove – 12 (10)
Mourning Dove – 5 (2)
American Barn Owl – 1 (1)
Barred Owl – 6 (11)
Belted Kingfisher – 23 (32)
Red-bellied Woodpecker – 59 (45)
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker – 1 (4)
Downy Woodpecker – 3 (4)
Northern Flicker (Yellow-shafted) – 3 (3)
Pileated Woodpecker – 7 (8)
American Kestrel – 2 (4)
Peregrine Falcon 1 (1)
Eastern Phoebe – 9 (8)
Great Crested Flycatcher – 6 (10)
White-eyed Vireo – 23 (14)
American Crow – 68 (94)
Tree Swallow – 81 (815)
House Wren – 3 (13)
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher – 33 (52)
Gray Catbird – 65 (102)
Brown Thrasher – 1 (1)
Northern Mockingbird – 11 (21)
European Starling – 63 (26)
Ovenbird – 2 (10)
Northern Waterthrush – 44 (69)
Black-and-white Warbler – 15 (11)
Prothonotary Warbler – 1 (0)
Orange-crowned Warbler – 2 (2)
Common Yellowthroat – 245 (208)
American Redstart – 14 (14)
Northern Parula – 6 (5)
Magnolia Warbler – 1 (0)
Yellow Warbler – 7 (17)
Black-throated Blue Warbler – 3 (1)
Palm Warbler – 24 (18)
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) – 26 (75)
Yellow-throated Warbler – 6 (6)
Prairie Warbler – 9 (21)
Savannah Sparrow – 5 (5)
Northern Cardinal – 46 (45)
Red-winged Blackbird - 80 (60)
Common Grackle – 215 (76)
Boat-tailed Grackle – 3 (0)
White-winged Dove – Photo by Luis Gonzalez