In Springtime, Coconut Grove is a key stopover for birds migrating north, catching the gaze of birding enthusiasts near and far.
The sun is already blazing on a recent Sunday morning at South Grove’s Merrie Christmas Park. Ana Lima, binoculars in hand, points toward a tiny flickering of black and yellow, barely visible in the dense canopy of a sprawling banyan fig tree.
“An American redstart,” she whispers, noting both its distinctive tail markings and its taste for insects attracted to the fruiting banyan. The spring migrant typically arrives in South Florida in April and early May. “It’s right on time.”
Lima, a Grove resident, avid birder, and the communications director for the Tropical Audubon Society, is here in search of any of the dozens of bird species that make Coconut Grove home – briefly, at least – during their spring migration north.
It’s my first peek into the world of birds, and the birder, and the lessons come as fast as the streaks of feathers appear and disappear from sight.
With us is noted environmental writer and photographer Kirsten Hines, also a Grove resident and a member of the Tropical Audubon Society board.
“Look for motion,” Hines instructs me as she aims a camera at a red dot high above. With her help, I see a flash of red and chase it with my eyes. “You saw that?” she smiles. “A cardinal.”
For birdwatching enthusiasts like Lima and Hines, springtime in Coconut Grove is, quite literally, a backyard paradise. As birds migrate north from the Caribbean and Central and South America, South Florida is a natural stopover and Coconut Grove, in particular, offers an indulgence of avian delights: food, shelter and, if all goes well, a fellow traveler in search of a mate.
In springtime, love is most definitely in the air, explains Brian Rapoza, Tropical Audubon Society’s field trip coordinator and author of “Birding Florida” a birding guide to more than 200 locations throughout the state.
“It’s time for breeding season, and you will see birds at their peak flirtatiousness with their vibrant colors and singing special songs.”
The show is a fleeting one, adds Rapoza.
“A lot of the songbirds will look different; the warblers, the tanagers, the orioles, their colors will be spectacular, then in the fall when they finish breeding, they molt again into their non-breeding plumage, which is much less spectacular.”
With one of South Florida’s densest tree canopies and a rich diversity of plant life, Coconut Grove is prime birding territory, often attracting birding enthusiasts from across the U.S. and beyond.
Through the data-collection app eBird, developed by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, birdwatchers are encouraged to report sightings, allowing scientists to better understand the changing populations and movement patterns of bird species.
At present, the app lists seven birding “hotspots” within the Grove: Vizcaya Museum & Gardens and Kennedy Park both with 114 species reported over the years, Dinner Key Marina with 94, the Kampong National Tropical Botanical Garden with 85, Peacock Park with 80, and the Barnacle Historic State Park with 72. Merrie Christmas Park, despite spanning just five acres, lists 47 species reported.
Many birdwatchers, Rapoza among them, keep detailed lists of each new species they encounter. His “life list,” compiled through travels across the globe, now tops 4,000 species, including more than 400 here in Miami.
Devoted birdwatchers often reference their “bird spark” – the encounter that first ignited their passion for birds. Rapoza’s occurred 32 years ago while hiking Everglades National Park’s Anhinga Trail.
“I saw this tiny little bird with a yellow throat and a black mask,” he recalls. Later that day, browsing the park’s gift shop, he noticed a field guide to the birds of North America.
“I went through every page of that book, and my bird was there, on the last page; it was a male common yellowthroat. There was no going back after that.”
For Lima and Hines, birding is what sparked a friendship. And, in time, it also sparked their creation of Phoebes Birding, a local group for women birders who connect through nature. “Our goal has always been to make birding more accessible to everyone,” says Hines.
“Nature has always been my escape, and that’s where I am the happiest,” she adds. “Even if I’m in a parking lot and had a horrible day and can see a bird, I already start to feel my blood pressure lower.”
Hines, who lives in South Grove, is the author (or co-author with her husband, James A. Kushlan) of nine books. A tenth is in progress. For her book “Birds of Florida”, she traveled extensively for two years hiking and camping throughout the state doing research. The book features 310 species and offers insights into some of Florida’s top birdwatching locations.
But throughout Florida and beyond, bird habitat is in decline, leading to a loss of about 2.9 billion birds – roughly one-third of all populations – throughout North America over the past 50 years. The causes are myriad: climate change, development pressures, exposure to pesticides, threats from cats and invasive species, as well as collisions with glass windows.
But the challenges are not intractable, Rapoza says. He rattles off the low-hanging fruit: Adding stickers to windows, keeping cats indoors, adding native plants to parks and our backyards that birds need to survive.
“The more we can convince people to have native plants in their yards,” Rapoza says, “the more stopover grounds the migrating birds will have. Then they can survive and have babies, and bring back the next generation of birds.”
Tips from Tropical Audubon Society for observing the spring bird migration through South Florida:
- A variety of apps, such as Merlin Bird ID, can identify birds through a short clip of their sounds.
- Sign up for a birding field trip at the Tropical Audubon Society.
- The data-collection and sharing app eBird identifies birding “hotspots” including a handful in Coconut Grove.
- Join the Tropical Audubon Bird Board’s Facebook Group, which helps neighbors share their South Florida bird sightings.
Consider planting native trees, flowers and groundcover to yards. Hines’ book Attracting Birds to South Florida Gardens is a great resource, and each June the Audubon Society holds a sale of native plants.
