The Tourist and Birder

                 A rare American Flamingo was seen in the panhandle during my visit.  My first views of these beautiful birds were at the Caroni Swamp in Trinidad

One of my favorite things to do as a birder is explore human created green spaces and do studies on native and non-native birds that thrive in these areas.  So for every new city or area I visit, I make an effort to visit their botanical gardens and zoo. Often, people will look at me funny and tell me how much they hate zoos.  Either way, zoos create "safe" spaces or corridors for many local native birds. Today we will explore two fun hotspots that were on my "must see" list, Zoo Miami and the Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden. 

                                                         lifer Chestnut-fronted Macaw

I love plants, a lot. And botanical gardens are always on my list of required visits.  This lovely tropical garden held some non-native bird species like the Blue-and-yellow and Chestnut-fronted Macaws.  Orange-winged Parrots were also on the list as were Common Hill Mynas. Birders will often ask their peers if they'll chase the exotics in Miami.  Some adhere to strict policies.  NO NON-NATIVE BIRDS!  But again in my book, if they've been breeding successfully in an area for a decade or more, I will count them.  The Common Hill Mynas, for example, are ABA countable but there aren't many of them left. And I need to clarify that we are not talking about the Common Mynas, which are found EVERYWHERE in the Miami area. The Common Hill Mynas are a different species. Their populations have crashed to 2 or 3 individuals around the botanical gardens.  In my book, even if they were "countable" by ABA standards, there are not countable in mine.  Everyone has rules. What are yours?

I had so much fun in the botanical gardens.  I drank a coffee and just enjoyed the parrot and warbler show there.  I had around 30 species of birds and I learned a lot about their behaviors around various vegetative habitats. You can find that report here. 

Last year, one of the few birds I had hoped to see in Panama was the Harpy Eagle.  It was difficult dipping on the bird twice, but at Zoo Miami, they had a pair raising a young one.  It's one of the few places you can see a pair of Harpy Eagles in a zoo setting.  They are massive raptors and the zoo has a conservation program in place.  Click here to see their project. Needless to say, I spent A LOT of time watching the parents interact with the younger bird.  They never took their eyes off the young one.  It was fascinating. When one of the Harpy Eagles landed on the ground, I could feel a little tremor of the ground:)

I will see this bird at some point, but for now I'm happy I got to observe some parental behavior.  So as a tourist, I find myself distracted by things like the Harpy Eagles or these glass art pieces below at the botanical gardens. 

That's where my "tourist" and gardener side comes out.  I'm looking at plant placement and how they are organized to create a lush environment in my own garden. While it's obviously lush with a color pop, I'd love to let desert gardeners know that they can create a "lush" and beautiful desert landscape here in the Southwest. Gardens inspire interesting ideas and wonderful plant combos utilizing their native plants with structure, color, and how they layer their various plants from groundcover to shade cover!  The native birds love it!  My yard today is a magical place full of wonderful desert birds.

Then I see a Tricolored Heron on a nest and mutter, "Whoa!"  It's not often I see these birds and if one does enter the state of Arizona, it's generally a juvenile in it's rusty brown and white combo.  Tricolored Herons are pretty sexy birds. My birder hat goes back on and I'm looking around the water areas of these places for more birds. 

I get distracted by squirrels.  The Eastern Gray Squirrel decides that I'm safe and eats away.  A Fish Crow floats down and "NAH NAH NAHs" on the grass calling other Fish Crows.  As they fly down, other smaller birds flush from the lawns at the zoo. 

I think the reptiles and frogs of Arizona are beautiful.  Then I see a Peter's Rock Agama and I think, "That's a pretty reptile."  I saw two Agama species at the zoo running around the grounds along with the biggest Green Iguanas I've ever seen. 

My focus at the zoo was to study warblers and vireos.  Recently, we had a rare Blue-headed Vireo show up in Arizona and I wasn't sure how I could tell a common freshly plumaged Cassin's Vireo from a rare Blue-headed Vireo.  The zoo had several species of vireos hanging out with warbler flocks.  I located a cooperative Blue-headed Vireo and made notes.  This bird had a very white throat that distinguished itself from our Cassin's.  I've placed a comparison photo here for birders.  All I can say is that the Blue-headed Vireo has bolder lines and color.  The top photo is the Blue-headed and the bottom is the Cassin's.  And honestly, they still look the same to me.  

So while at the zoo, everyone was looking at all the animals.  Kids were running around the place and here I was, the odd duck, watching the amazing warbler show.  People would stare at me with my binoculars trying to figure out what I was looking at in the trees.  

Palm Warbler

I love Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers but it was great finding so many other warblers in the mix that we don't get in Arizona. I spent some time with a pair of Black-throated Blue Warblers going after spider webs. The thing with warbler flocks is that they are sporadic and when you find one, you have to quickly ID all the birds in the "warbler cloud" before they move on to another spot. Sometimes it's just minutes to get those ID's.  In my case I was looking at every bird for what hopefully could be a lifer Cape May Warbler. I have heard this bird but I have not been able to lock my eyes with one visually. I have a new nemesis! I've tried now more than 4 times! And when I think I have one, it's a Black-and-white Warbler!

As I dug through every bird at the zoo, I found Painted and Indigo Buntings, a rare Shiny Cowbird trying to get into a cage, Common Grackles and so much more.  My report is here. It was evident that the beginnings of migration was happening during my visit. 

I got caught up with this Ovenbird.  I don't know why I love them so much but they remind me somewhat of a Wood Thrush. It's a bird of the understory like the Wood Thrush and has bold markings like the Wood Thrush. But it's a warbler!  I added a few lifer parrots from these visits but I gained so much useful information from these places.  I now can connect certain birds with different vegetation and habitats.  I've got my Arizona birds down by heart so learning about Florida bird requirements was fresh and exciting for me.  Except that stupid traffic.   

I've saved my last post for the wetlands.  Again, a special thanks to Homer for giving me tips on where to go for birds. They were enjoyable days out.  But there were 2 places he highly recommended north of Miami that were amazing and not on my radar!  Next week we'll take some beautiful hikes around these must visit wetlands. It'll be our last post on Florida.  Then we head to Washington and Oregon for some incredible grouse trekking and detective work on owls. After that we'll pause and check in on Arizona birding.  Then it's off to Mexico City, the state of Chihuahua and Cancun for some exciting Mexican birding.  Life is good.  And it is meant to be lived.  Yes. I work and I love what I do but my work doesn't define who I am as a person. As a wonderful man once told me, work hard and play hard. Until next time.....