Florida Specialties
This is Florida's state bird.
What is the Northern Mockingbird?
This beautiful wader of coastal Florida and Texas is often mistaken for a Flamingo.
What is a Roseate Spoonbill?
This small, common owl comes in two color morphs.
What is the Eastern Screech-Owl?
Most birders agree that this duck, a winter resident of Florida, is misnamed.
What is the Ring-necked Duck?
A very thin "little brown job."
What is a narrow sparrow?
This is the only bird species endemic to Florida.
What is the Florida Scrub Jay?
This large woodpecker is believed to be extinct, but may have been seen recently in a Florida swamp.
What is the Ivory-billed Woodpecker?
The common hoot owl.
What is the Great Horned Owl?
Few pure ducks of this southern species remain, due to hybridization with the Mallard.
What is the Mottled Duck?
A boring seabird.
What is a dull gull?
This large, noisy, brown and white speckled wader is found only casually in other US states, and is therefore considered to be a Florida specialty.
What is the Limpkin?
This fairly common gull of Florida beaches is named for its distinctive bill.
What is the Ring-billed Gull?
This owl asks "Who-cooks-for-you-all?"
What is the Barred Owl?
This gooselike duck, a year-round resident of southwest Florida, is named for its call and is often seen perched on phone lines.
What is the Black-bellied Whistling Duck?
A very happy corvid.
What is a gay jay?
This species, from the family Cuculidae, is present but uncommon in southern Florida coastal wooded habitats.
What is a Mangrove Cuckoo?
Despite their descriptive names, these closely related shorebirds are difficult to distinguished from one another.
What are Long-billed and Short-billed Dowitchers?
Owls eyes are fixed in their sockets, allowing for binocular vision, but limiting their peripheral vision. This adaptation enables them to see 270 degrees.
What are extra neck vertebrae? (An owl's neck has 14 vertebrae, humans have only seven.)
This most handsome species of duck is one of the few ducks that nests in tree cavities.
What is the Wood Duck.
A thrush treading water.
What is a bobbin' robin?
In the US, this tropical raptor is restricted to southern Florida and has a strict diet of a single mollusk species.
What is the Snail Kite?
This member of the Cuculidae family is found in Florida, along with its mangrove inhabiting cousin.
What is the Yellow-billed Cuckoo?
This anatomical adaptation allow owls to triangulate sounds and home in on their prey.
What is asymmetrical ears? (One ear higher than the other.)
This very common winter resident of Florida is named for its beautifully colored forewing patch.
What is the Blue-winged Teal?
A crazy Sandhill.
What is an insane crane?