South Florida Exotics & Winter Rarities
January 6-12, 2025
Your place on this Venture is reserved with your completed registration and deposit of $700/person are submitted. Deposit may be made via the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer via our website. If paying by cash, check, or money order (payable to ‘VENTURES BIRDING’), please mail in your payment with a paper registration form to PO Box 1095, Skyland, NC 28776, or contact our office. This Venture is limited to 10 participants.
Cost of South Florida Venture $2675 per person from Miami, Florida based on double occupancy (Single supplement $475) Price includes: Van transportation to and from Miami, accommodation, meals, admission fees, information packet & bird checklist, and guide/leader service Not included: Airfare to and from Miami, alcoholic beverages, and items of a personal nature.
This 5-day tour will take us throughout the southern Florida peninsula in search of local specialties, numerous exotic/introduced species, and potential rarities. Specialties like White-crowned Pigeon, Short-tailed Hawk and Snail Kite are regular in south Florida but are not likely to be seen elsewhere in the US. The avifauna of south Florida also features numerous introduced species that are now well-established (and countable) like Egyptian Goose, Gray-headed Swamphen, and Spot-breasted Oriole. Not to mention the many species of Psittacids - parrots, parakeets, macaws – that are regular near Miami. This part of the state is also well-known for its winter rarities, including vagrants from both the tropics and from western North America. As of November 2024 chaseable tropical rarities included Bananaquit, Yellow-headed Caracara, and Shiny Cowbird. Recent western rarities have included Clay-colored Sparrow and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher. We have built extra time and flexibility into our itinerary in order to chase the latest rarities as they are reported. Our searches for this diverse group of species will take us to suburban locations in the greater Miami area, inland prairies and wetlands, the wetlands and mangroves of the majestic Everglades National Park, and wetlands and parks in the Keys including the eclectic Key West.
Some of the birds we hope to see: Red Junglefowl, Black-bellied Whistling Duck, Egyptian Goose, Muscovy Duck, Mottled Duck, Indian Peafowl, White-crowned Pigeon, Eurasian Collared-Dove, White-winged Dove, Smooth-billed Ani, Mangrove Cuckoo, Lesser Nighthawk, Purple Gallinule, Gray-headed Swamphen, Limpkin, Sandhill Crane, numerous shorebird species, Lesser-black-backed Gull, American Flamingo, Magnificent Frigatebird, Anhinga, Roseate Spoonbill, Reddish Egret, “Great White” Heron, White-tailed Kite, Snail Kite, Short-tailed Hawk, Burrowing Owl, Crested Caracara, Yellow-headed Caracara, Monk Parakeet, Red-crowned Amazon, Blue-and-Yellow Macaw, Blue-crowned Parakeet, Red-masked Parakeet, Vermillion Flycatcher, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Red-whiskered Bulbul, Scaly-breasted Munia, Common Myna, Spot-breasted Oriole, Shiny Cowbird, Bronzed Cowbird, Yellow (Golden) Warbler, Townsend’s Warbler, Bananaquit