GAINESVILLE’S 62ND CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT, though not a record breaker like last year’s, was good enough to be the second-highest count in our history. Last year we found 175 species of birds; this year we found 170.
One of our highlights was a count of 104 Snail Kites. This was only the second year in which this Central- and South-Florida raptor had ever been recorded on our Count, but their abundance was amazing – in fact, our tally of 104 represented the largest concentration of Snail Kites in any one place in the United States!
Our Limpkin total of 510, though a little shy of last year’s record-breaking U.S. count of 544, was still the second-highest total ever recorded on any CBC in the States. We can probably expect Limpkins and Snail Kites to decline somewhat as the water levels drop on Paynes Prairie, reducing habitat for the exotic apple snails on which both species feed.
(Record-high counts – or tallies that tie previous record-high counts – are marked below with an asterisk.)
Black-bellied Whistling-Duck 6,872*
Fulvous Whistling-Duck 1
Canada Goose 7
Muscovy Duck 244
Wood Duck 414
Gadwall 60
American Wigeon 3
Mallard 9
Mottled Duck 214
Blue-winged Teal 744
Northern Shoveler 46
Northern Pintail 28
Green-winged Teal 208
Redhead 2
Ring-necked Duck 2,118
Lesser Scaup 45
Bufflehead 8
Hooded Merganser 192
Ruddy Duck 15
Northern Bobwhite 24
Wild Turkey 67
Pied-billed Grebe 133
Horned Grebe 1
Rock Pigeon 16
Eurasian Collared-Dove 13
Common Ground-Dove 9
White-winged Dove 2
Mourning Dove 335
Eastern Whip-poor-will 3
Vaux’s Swift 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird 2
King Rail 3
Virginia Rail 2
Sora 27
Purple Gallinule 8
Purple (AKA Gray-headed) Swamphen 1* (tie)
Common Gallinule 1,007
American Coot 4,098
Limpkin 510
Sandhill Crane 7,993*
Whooping Crane 1
Killdeer 421
Stilt Sandpiper 3
Dunlin 8
Least Sandpiper 34
Wilson’s Snipe 231
Long-billed Dowitcher 97
American Woodcock 13
Spotted Sandpiper 1
Greater Yellowlegs 40
Lesser Yellowlegs 21
Laughing Gull 7
Ring-billed Gull 285
Herring Gull 1
Forster’s Tern 6
Common Loon 1
Wood Stork 85
Double-crested Cormorant 734
Anhinga 634*
American White Pelican 15
American Bittern 7
Least Bittern 4
Great Blue Heron 261
Great Egret 215
Snowy Egret 123
Little Blue Heron 291
Tricolored Heron 98
Cattle Egret 126
Green Heron 38
Black-crowned Night-Heron 75
White Ibis 1,313
Glossy Ibis 292
Roseate Spoonbill 4
Black Vulture 466
Turkey Vulture 935
Osprey 25
Northern Harrier 42
Sharp-shinned Hawk 9
Cooper’s Hawk 16
Accipiter sp. 1
Bald Eagle 121
Snail Kite 104*
Red-shouldered Hawk 229
Red-tailed Hawk 53
Barn Owl 8
Eastern Screech-Owl 9
Great Horned Owl 45
Barred Owl 67*
Belted Kingfisher 75
Red-headed Woodpecker 22
Red-bellied Woodpecker 359
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 102
Downy Woodpecker 197
Northern Flicker 87
Pileated Woodpecker 195*
American Kestrel 41
Merlin 4
Peregrine Falcon 1
Ash-throated Flycatcher 1
Brown-crested Flycatcher 1* (tie)
Least Flycatcher 1
Eastern Phoebe 551
Loggerhead Shrike 24
White-eyed Vireo 104
Blue-headed Vireo 114
Blue Jay 258
American Crow 593
Fish Crow 77
crow sp. 25
Tree Swallow 496
Carolina Chickadee 333
Tufted Titmouse 383
Brown-headed Nuthatch 10
House Wren 325*
Winter Wren 2
Sedge Wren 54
Marsh Wren 41
Carolina Wren 513
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 752
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 598
Eastern Bluebird 226
Hermit Thrush 71
Wood Thrush 1* (tie)
American Robin 2,716
Gray Catbird 143
Brown Thrasher 18
Northern Mockingbird 158
European Starling 11
Cedar Waxwing 177
Scaly-breasted Munia 3 (escaped cage bird – not countable)
House Sparrow 42
American Pipit 17
House Finch 109
American Goldfinch 173
Ovenbird 9
Louisiana Waterthrush 1* (tie)
Northern Waterthrush 8
Black-and-white Warbler 131
Orange-crowned Warbler 168*
Common Yellowthroat 279
American Redstart 8*
Northern Parula 6
Palm Warbler 1,217
Pine Warbler 240
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2,091
Yellow-throated Warbler 66*
Prairie Warbler 8
Wilson’s Warbler 1
Yellow-breasted Chat 1
Eastern Towhee 76
Field Sparrow 11
Chipping Sparrow 959
Vesper Sparrow 14
Savannah Sparrow 120
Grasshopper Sparrow 4
Henslow’s Sparrow 8
Fox Sparrow 3
Song Sparrow 76
Swamp Sparrow 335
White-throated Sparrow 20
White-crowned Sparrow 12
Summer Tanager 5*
Western Tanager 1* (tie)
Northern Cardinal 791
Blue Grosbeak 1
Indigo Bunting 9*
Painted Bunting 26*
Red-winged Blackbird 8,643
Eastern Meadowlark 144
Rusty Blackbird 24
Common Grackle 410
Boat-tailed Grackle 1,467
Brown-headed Cowbird 533
Baltimore Oriole 59