Birding the Florida Everglades: Anhinga Trail to the Dry Tortugas
Florida's Everglades and Keys offer wading birds, tropical specialties, and spring seabird colonies. Here are the top trails, the winter timing, and the birds to find.
South Florida is a birding destination unlike anywhere else in the continental U.S. — a subtropical wetland teeming with wading birds, plus Caribbean strays and a famous seabird colony offshore. Winter is prime time.
Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park
The single most productive easy walk in the park. A short boardwalk over a slough puts Anhingas, herons, egrets, Purple Gallinules, and alligators at point-blank range. In the dry winter season, birds concentrate around remaining water, making for spectacular, close viewing.
More Everglades hotspots
- Mrazek Pond and Eco Pond — wading bird concentrations and roseate spoonbills.
- Mahogany Hammock — a tropical tree island with Barred Owls and warblers.
- Snake Bight Trail — flats with flamingos in some years and huge shorebird flocks.
Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary
An Audubon sanctuary of old-growth bald cypress with a long boardwalk. Painted Buntings winter at the feeders, and the swamp hosts Wood Storks, Barred Owls, and a cathedral-like forest worth the trip on its own.
The Dry Tortugas
A boat or seaplane ride west of Key West reaches Garden Key, home to thousands of nesting Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies, Magnificent Frigatebirds overhead, and spring fallouts of migrants on the only land for miles. A bucket-list trip best in April.
Florida specialties to target
Beyond the wading birds, look for Snail Kite, Limpkin, Smooth-billed Ani, Short-tailed Hawk, and the Florida Scrub-Jay (a state endemic found in scrub habitat farther north). Many are range-restricted, so this is a region of true ticks for a U.S. list.
Plan around the dry season
Visit December through April for the best concentrations and the most comfortable weather. Set Birder AI to your Florida location for nearby-species hints, and log the wading-bird bonanza — it's one of the easiest places in the country to photograph birds up close.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best time to go birding in the Everglades?+
The dry winter season, roughly December through April, is best. As water levels drop, wading birds and other species concentrate around remaining water (like the Anhinga Trail slough), making for spectacular close viewing, and the weather is most comfortable.
What birds can you see in the Florida Everglades?+
Anhingas, herons, egrets, Roseate Spoonbills, Wood Storks, Purple Gallinules, Snail Kites, and Limpkins are highlights, along with wintering Painted Buntings at Corkscrew Swamp and, on the Dry Tortugas, nesting Sooty Terns and Magnificent Frigatebirds.