Enjoy bird watching? Here are the 10 most common birds you'll see in your Florida yard
There's something enjoyable about sitting back and watching birds chasing bugs in your yard, flying back and forth to feed hungry (and loud) nestlings, stopping by to check out the latest offerings in the bird feeder, or grabbing a quick sip or bath in the birdbath.
Birds can be found in every Florida neighborhood and habitat, according to Renee Wilson, senior communications coordinator with the Audubon Florida and Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary. Even better, you don't have to be a particular age or have special talents to take up birdwatching.
The National Audubon Society website offers tips for beginner birdwatchers, including how to find birds, what you need to get started, and which native plants will attract birds to your backyard.
Audubon’s free Bird Guide app (Apple store | Google Play) helps you identify species and track the birds you’ve seen.
Want to get even more involved?
Connect with one of more than 40 Audubon chapters in Florida or visit a nature center or sanctuary, including Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary east of Naples and Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland.
In the meantime, here are 10 of the most common birds you may spot in your Florida yard.
Northern cardinal
Diet: Seeds, insects, berries, insects. Favors sunflower seeds in bird feeders.
Eggs: 3-4
Young: Leaves nest 9-11 days after hatching. Male may feed while female begins next brood.
Nest: Open cup made of twigs, weeds, grass, bark strips, leaves, rootlets, lined with fine grass or hair. Well hidden in dense shrubs, vines, or low trees 3 to 10 feet above ground.
Abundant across Florida and the east, the northern cardinal is found in a wide variety of brushy or semi-open habitats. They occupy forest clearings and swamps, city parks, and almost wherever there are some dense bushes for nesting.
Adult male birds are bright red while females and juveniles are warm brown with hints of red; all have a pointed crest and thick, conical bill.
With a diet primarily of seeds, berries, and some insects, northern cCardinals forage mostly while hopping on ground or in low bushes, and readily come to bird feeders, where they favor sunflower seeds.
Want more information about the northern cardinal?
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Red-bellied woodpecker
Diet: Omnivorous. Insects, acorns, fruits, seeds, tree frogs.
Eggs: 4-5.
Young: Leaves nest 22-27 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Hole excavated in dead wood (tree, pole, fence post, or stump), usually less than 50 feet above ground but can be as high as 120 feet.
Primarily a bird of the southeast, where its rolling calls are familiar sounds in swamps and riverside woods, red-bellied woodpeckers have adjusted to life in suburbs and city parks across Florida.
Despite the name, the red on the belly is not often visible but both sexes have red on the back of the head.
Omnivorous and adaptable, red-bellied woodpeckers’ diet is about 50 percent insects. These medium-sized birds search for a variety of insects on tree trunks and sometimes even catch flying insects in the air.
They also eat a lot of berries and nuts, which they glean from trees and shrubs or sometimes from bird feeders.
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Blue jay
Diet: Omnivorous but mostly vegetable matter, including seeds, grain, berries. Insects, frogs.
Eggs: 4-5.
Young: Leaves nest 17-21 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Nest site is in tree, usually 8-30 feet above ground. Nest is a bulky open cup made of twigs, grass, weeds, sometimes held together with mud and lined with fine materials. Often decorated with paper, rags, string, or other debris.
One of the loudest (let's emphasize loud here!) and most colorful birds of eastern backyards and woodlots, the blue jay is unmistakable, intelligent, and adaptable.
These social birds are quick to take advantage of bird feeders. Besides their raucous “jay! jay!” calls, blue jays make a variety of musical sounds, and they can do a remarkable imitation of the scream of a red-shouldered hawk.
Common across Florida and the eastern U.S., they are found in oak and pine woods habitats, suburban gardens, city parks, and backyards.
Nearly 75% of their diet is made up of plant matter — such as berries, seeds, and acorns — which they break open with their bill or store in holes in the ground for future use.
Blue jays also eat insects, caterpillars, lizards, and other small animals.
Want more information about the blue jay?
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Mourning dove
Diet: Seeds.
Eggs: 2.
Young: Leaves nest 15 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Male leads female to potential nest sites; female chooses one, usually in tree or shrub but sometimes on the ground. Nest is very flimsy platform of twigs which the male provides as the female builds.
The cooing of the mourning dove is one of the most familiar bird sounds.
Related to pigeons and found across the United States, mourning doves are relatively large, brown-and-beige birds.
In Florida they are known to raise up to six broods a year — more than any other native species.
While they will sometimes perch in shrubs to eat seeds, mourning doves forage mostly on the ground and especially under bird feeders.
Their diet is almost entirely made up of seeds: they favor the seeds of cultivated grains, grasses, and many other plants.
Look for mourning doves in forest clearings, farmland, suburbs, and especially in edge habitats having both trees and open ground.
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Northern mockingbird
Diet: Mostly insects and berries.
Eggs: 3-4.
Young: Leaves nest 12 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Placed in a dense shrub or tree, usually 3-10 feet above the ground. Nest has bulky foundation of twigs supporting open cup of weeds, grass, leaves, lined with fine material. Male builds most of foundation, female adds most of lining.
This bird's famous song, with its varied repetitions and artful imitations, is heard all day during nesting season (and often all night as well).
Very common in towns and cities across the southern U.S., the northern mockingbird has a varied diet of insects and berries.
They are often seen hunting insects on open lawns, stopping every few feet to partly spread their wings, flashing their white wing patches in an attempt to stir up prey.
Their favorite foods are beetles, grasshoppers, caterpillars, ants, and wasps, but they also eat berries and fruit.
Want more information about the northern mockingbird?
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Tufted titmouse
Diet: Mostly insects and seeds.
Eggs: 5-6.
Young: Leaves nest 15-16 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Nest site is in hole in tree about 35 feet above the ground. Nest has foundation of grass, moss, leaves, bark strips, lined with soft materials, especially animal hair. Bird may pluck hair from live woodchuck, dog, or other animal, even from humans.
This active, crested little bird is common all year in Florida and throughout eastern forests.
Tufted titmice forage by hopping actively among branches and twigs of trees, often hanging upside down and sometimes hovering momentarily.
Insects make up close to two-thirds of their annual diet, with caterpillars the most important prey in summer. Related to chickadees, titmice readily come to bird feeders and often carry away sunflower seeds one at a time.
These crafty birds will store food for later and are also known to utilize pet fur in their nests, which they make in tree cavities.
Want more information about the tifted titmouse?
Common grackle
Diet: Omnivorous. Insects, frogs, eggs of other birds, berries and seeds.
Eggs: 4-5.
Young: Leaves nest 16-20 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Typically nests in small colonies of 10-30 pairs, sometimes to 100 or more. Nest site is often well hidden among branches of dense tree or shrubs near water, less than 20 feet above ground but can be much higher or very low in marshy areas. Nest (built by female) is bulky open cup of weeds, grass, twigs, usually with some mud added; inside lined with fine grass.
Seen across the eastern U.S., the common grackle is a relative of blackbirds and orioles.
These gregarious birds often fly in large flocks in the evening, heading for communal roosts, especially from late summer through winter.
They are found in many kinds of open or semi-open country, often foraging in farm fields, pastures, cattle feedlots, and marshes. They can be seen on suburban lawns across Florida, striding about with deliberate steps as they search for insects.
Common grackles have a varied diet, including insects, spiders, earthworms, crayfish, minnows, lizards, eggs, and even small rodents.
Vegetable matter is also important, including berries, waste grain, acorns, and occasional seeds from bird feeders.
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Downy woodpecker
Diet: Mostly insects, especially beetles and ants. Will also eat seeds and berries and suet at bird feeders.
Eggs: 4-5.
Young: Leaves nest 20-25 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Nest site is a cavity in a dead limb or dead tree, usually 12-30 feet above ground. Cavity entrance is often surrounded by fungus or lichen, helping to camouflage site.
The smallest woodpecker in North America, downy woodpeckers are common and widespread across the U.S. except the arid southwest.
In Florida, this is the most familiar member of the family, readily entering towns and city parks and coming to backyard bird feeders.
Its small size makes it versatile, and it may forage on weed stalks as well as in large trees. These birds forage not only on trunks and large limbs of trees but also on minor branches and twigs (often climbing about acrobatically and hanging upside down), as well as on shrubs and weed stalks.
Both sexes excavate their nest cavity in a dead limb or tree. In winter, the downy woodpecker often joins roving mixed flocks of chickadees, nuthatches, and other birds in the woods.
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Brown thrasher
Diet: More than half is insects but also eats berries and seeds and some/times lizards and frogs.
Eggs: 4.
Young: Leaves nest 9-13 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Usually placed 2-7 feet above the ground in a dense shrub, vine tangle, or low tree. Sometimes on the ground under dense cover. Nest is built by both sexes and is a bulky structure, with foundation of sticks supporting a loose cup of twigs, leaves, weeds, grass, bark fibers, lined with finer materials such as grass or rootlets.
The big, foxy-red brown thrasher is a year-round resident in Florida and the southeast.
Doing much foraging on the ground, it uses its bill to flip dead leaves aside or dig in the soil as it rummages for insects. It will perch in shrubs and trees to eat berries and crack open acorns by pounding them with its bill.
Sometimes it forages boldly on open lawns. More often, it scoots into dense cover at any disturbance, hiding among the briar tangles and making loud, crackling sounds.
Brown thrashers may visit feeders or the ground below to pick up fallen seeds.
Although the species spends most of its time close to the ground, the male brown thrasher sometimes will deliver its rich, melodious song of doubled phrases from the top of a tall tree.
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Carolina wren
Diet: Mostly insects and sometimes small lizards and tree frogs. Also eats berries and small fruits, especially in winter, and some seeds.
Eggs: 5-6.
Young: Leaves nest 12-14 days after hatching. Fed by both parents.
Nest: Nest site is in any kind of cavity in trees or stumps, old woodpecker holes, crevices among upturned roots of fallen trees, sometimes in middle of brushpile. Usually less than 10 feet above the ground. Nest is bulky mass of twigs, leaves, weeds, with lining of softer material. A piece of snakeskin is frequently added. Often a domed nest, with entrance on side. Both sexes help build, female adds most of lining.
More brightly colored than most wrens, and with a rich musical song, Carolina wrens are common in open woods and backyards in the southeast.
Across Florida, they busily explore brush piles and low tangles. The adults live in pairs all year, and they may perform a "duet" at any season, with the female giving a chattering note while the male sings.
They feed primarily on insects of many kinds, especially caterpillars and beetles, as well as spiders, millipedes, snails, small lizards, or tree frogs.
They also eat berries and small fruits, especially in winter, and some seeds. They usually forage in pairs and sometimes come to bird feeders for suet, peanuts, other items.
Their nest site is in any kind of cavity, including natural hollows in trees or stumps, old woodpecker holes, crevices among upturned roots of fallen trees, sometimes in the middle of a brush pile; they also in nest boxes, crevices in buildings, on a shelf in the garage, and on many other human-built structures.
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This article originally appeared on Sarasota Herald-Tribune: 10 most common birds in Florida backyards
