Wild South Florida

05/14/2025

04/07/2025

Swallow-tailed kites have amazing vision. I've seen them grab a pig frog while at least 100 feet above the ground. A human might stand over one of these amphibian and not even see it.

02/18/2025

Department staff working the 2025 Natural Areas Festival at Winding Waters Natural Area on February 15 noticed a special avian attendee to the event – a male painted bunting. Painted buntings winter in South Florida, Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean. They breed in the coastal Southeast and in the south-central U.S. The males are a fantastic combination of blue, green, yellow, and red, while the females and immatures are a bright yellow green. Painted buntings eat seeds for much of the year, switching to mostly insects in the breeding season. These birds do frequent bird feeders in South Florida during their winter stay. Painted buntings are still common, but populations have been dropping for several decades. Habitat destruction is one of the biggest factors in the decline.

Learn more about this bird at allaboutbirds.org.
Learn more about Winding Waters Natural Area at pbcnaturalareas.com.

01/02/2025

We'll say it louder for those of you that are hard of heron. It's self-reflection season again!

Time to look back on the past year and wonder if you made good choices. We hope you have no egrets. Happy New Year!

Photo of a great egret by Michael Zheng (sharetheexperience)

11/11/2024

It's still spooky season, right? Cool. Let's talk about the mysterious ghost orchid.

At night, deep in the swamps of southwestern Florida, a blooming ghost orchid appears like a floating phantom. The plant attaches itself by its roots high up on trees, making its white blossom give the illusion of hovering in the air.

The ghost orchid, like many orchids, is very finicky and has specific habitat requirements such as high humidity, mild temperatures, and the existence of a certain type of fungus.

Threats to these rare and spectacular orchids include poaching, loss and degradation of habitat, and more.

Photo: D.Miller/USFWS