"Brevard County is one of the top birding destinations in the eastern United States — and most people who live here don't even know it. We have over 500 bird species recorded in the county, including rare visitors, year-round residents, and tens of thousands of winter migrants. Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge alone has over 330 species recorded. You can stand at the edge of a Brevard impoundment at dawn and watch a spectacle of wading birds that rivals anything in the Everglades."
Why Brevard County Is a Birding Destination
Why Brevard County is exceptional for birding: Location, location, location. Brevard County sits at a critical latitude along the Atlantic Flyway — one of four major North American bird migration corridors. Billions of birds travel the Atlantic Flyway between their breeding grounds in Canada and the northeastern US and their wintering grounds in the Caribbean, Central America, and South America. Florida's narrow peninsula acts like a funnel that concentrates migrating birds into spectacular numbers each spring and fall. Year-round residents: Great blue herons, tricolored herons, little blue herons, great egrets, snowy egrets, roseate spoonbills, white ibis, glossy ibis, ospreys, bald eagles, belted kingfishers, painted buntings (winter), Florida Scrub-Jays (scrub habitat only), sandhill cranes, and dozens more. Winter visitors (November–April): thousands of ducks (blue-winged teal, green-winged teal, lesser scaup, ring-necked ducks, bufflehead, hooded mergansers), American avocets, American bitterns, numerous warbler species. Summer breeders (April–August): swallow-tailed kites, magnificent frigatebirds (offshore), least terns, royal terns, roseate terns, anhinga colonies. Rarity potential: Brevard's position on the Atlantic coast means rare species from Europe, the Caribbean, and the western US occasionally turn up — shearwaters offshore, Caribbean vagrants in fall, western warblers during migration. Brevard has produced some of the most notable rare bird records in Florida.
