Larry Manfredi Birding Tours

05/23/2024

This morning at my job site on the north side of Biscayne National Park I had a calling La Sagra's Flycatcher. I went to Key Largo with my friend Mike and found another La Sagra's Flycatcher! The Key Largo bird is available to the public, and the one on my job site is only on weekends. To see more photos go here: https://birdingandnaturetours.com/two-la-sagras-flycatchers-the-same-day/
A link for the Key Largo bird is here:
https://maps.google.com?q=25.2774392,-80.2988946&entry=gps&lucs=,47071704,47069508,94218635,94203019,47084304,94208458,94208447&g_st=iw

05/10/2024

So a Solar Flare or Solar Storm is hitting as I type this. That means you may not see my post because it could wipe out internet connections or mess up power stations and radio waves. I took a photo of the Sun on February 12, 2024, and today May 10, 2024. You can see the huge flare on the lower left of the Sun in today's photo. In my February 12, 2024 photo, you can see some smaller flares. The one from today is HUGE! I've posted two photos.

04/28/2024

Like the rest of the world, covid put a damper on normal life. I was very fortunate to have been able to take an environmental job way out in the Everglades. That was a great job because I wasn't around too many people. I'm currently on another job closer to home which is very nice. This job will last until the end of August. I now have a new website, with my old one, I couldn't maintain it anymore and it was outdated. So now I started fresh with a new one. Jutta from http://www.g-graphic.net/ did an excellent job of creating a new one for me. Now I will be able to maintain it. I will add tours as I have time to put them together. Here is my new website: https://birdingandnaturetours.com/ I have a blog on the website that I will continue to add to.

Larry Manfredi Birding and Nature Tours Incredible lakes, the Everglades National Park, beaches around Miami and of course the Florida Keys are wonderful places in Florida to explore birds, butterflies and other wildlife. I offer tours for groups or individuals, full organized or specialized tours t...

03/11/2024

Only in South Florida USA will you ever see cool sightings like this.

Blue and Yellow Macaws are native to South America. For the last 40 years, there have been free-flying Blue and Yellow Macaws in South Florida. Seeing thes...

03/11/2024

How about a Cuban Yellow Warbler also called Golden Yellow Warbler. These can be found in the Florida Keys and Islands in Biscayne Bay. These are genetically more distinct than the Mangrove Yellow Warbler. These breed on Mangrove Islands and a few mainland areas of South Florida. They can also be found throughout the West Indies.

01/09/2024

So I took my boat into Everglades National Park to look for American Flamingos. I was not disappointed and had great luck with the flamingos as well as some shorebirds and American Crocodiles. It was a very fun trip.

American Flamingo Phoenicopterus ruber are found in many areas of the Caribbean. Mexico, Cuba, Hispaniola, Bahamas, northern South America, the Galapagos Is...

01/15/2022

The Barred Owl ask the question, do you know the answer?

Barred Owl is the fourth largest owl in North American and can be found in a variety of forest. They ask the question, "Who Cooks For You"?

06/15/2021

We had a great day yesterday June 13th pelagic trip, video can be seen here!
Channel 7 WSVN Miami asked me to do an interview about the whale and tropicbird when they saw my video. They told me it will air tonight on the 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. news.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TxYPZ54QCsQ&t=26s

On a offshore birding/pelagic trip off Homestead Florida, we were treated to a S***M WHALE SIGHTING! WE ALSO HAD A RARE RED-BILLED TROPICBIRD SIGHTING!

05/30/2021

A nice pelagic trip yesterday off Homestead with pretty calm seas. We had a nice assortment of species. Wilson's Storm-Petrel, Band-rumped Storm-Petrel, Sooty Tern, Bridled Tern, a late Northern Gannet, Brown B***y, Arctic Tern are some the of the best ones.
By far the rarest sighting were Sooty Terns sitting on the water!! Message me if interested in the next one!

I edited this post to include the Leach's Storm-Petrel that we thought we saw. Kevin Brix got an excellent photo showing the forked tail. When I looked at my photos this morning I thought one looked like a Leach's Storm-Petrel, well it was. I only have bad photos of a Band-rumped Storm-Petrel. Taking Pelagic bird photos are always a challenge! So we had three species of Storm-Petrels which is nice!

03/09/2021

You can never get enough looks at Swallow-tailed Kites! I always look forward to their return trip from South American, what a beautiful bird! I took these photos a couple of days ago at Anhinga Trail. There is a nest that is being built in the Cypress dome east of the eastern most part of the boardwalk.

03/07/2021

If you have ever wondered what it was like to bird on Attu Island, click the link below. Attu was featured in the movie the "Big Year". They didn't film there but filmed in a similar location in Canada.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=inFjuB2MIR4

For many years hardcore birders visited Attu Island the end most Aleutian Island U.S. owned, before you reach Russia. Many, many Asian stray birds make thei...

03/05/2021

Painted Buntings sure are beautiful!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1xU_yMLZTw&t=23s

Painted Buntings can be found most commonly from Florida to west Texas, along the gulf coast states to North Carolina. They winter in south Florida, Cuba an...

02/27/2021

Giant Antpitta is a rare and shy bird. Thanks to a feeding station in Ecuador birders from around the world and see this rare and shy bird.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U02dvOHY7UY&t=18s

Giant Antpitta is a rare and seldom seen bird. Thanks to Angel Paz https://refugiopazdelasaves.com, many people from around the world can view such a specta...

10/13/2020

On May 31, 2010 Marcus Ponce found the first record of Red-legged Thrush in the A.B.A area (American Birding Association). This area includes birds seen north of Mexico and includes Alaska and Canada. Marcus found the bird at Maritime Hammock Sanctuary Brevard County, Florida.
On April 25, 2019 Henry Detweiller found a Red-legged Thrush at Lantana Preserve in Palm Beach County.
On June 26, 2019 Frank Schena found a Red-Legged Thrush at South Pointe Park on South Beach, Miami Beach.
On October 10, 2020 David Essian and Julia Roblyer found a Red-legged Thrush at the Key West Tropical Forest and Botanical Gardens located on Stock Island.
If I remember correctly, when the Maritime Hammock Preserve bird was first found, nobody knew about it that day. Jim Eager who lives near that area discovered the sighting I believe on a local Audubon site where Marcus posted it. It was either the next day after the sighting or perhaps two days later, other birders looked without success. I spent the day there on either the third or fourth day after the sighting without success.
When the Lantana bird was found, I heard about it around 3:00 p.m. on a Friday. I thought; do I really want to deal with the Miami traffic on a Friday afternoon and drive up to Palm Beach to see that bird? No I did not but that cost me the bird. I went the following day and did not see the bird although there was a Bahama Mockingbird present which was nice.
When the Miami Beach bird showed up, we were not in town. We got back the day before the last sighting of the bird. We went the next day, no bird. Later in the day it was seen again so I went back, because of traffic I got there too late and never saw the bird.
When I heard about the bird on Stock Island near Key West I thought, I still have a chance to see this cool bird in the A.B.A. area. I have seen just about every subspecies of Red-legged Thrush where they normally occur. From the northern Bahamas over to Cuba and east to Puerto Rico. When I saw the first photos of the Stock Island bird, I knew that it was the western Cuban subspecies which has never been seen in the A.B.A. area. The previous three sightings were all of the Bahamas subspecies.
Yesterday October 11, 2020 I awoke early to drive down to Stock Island to search for the current Red-legged Thrush. I arrived about 40-minutes before the opening time which is a super late 10:00 a.m. opening time. I was soon joined by other birders, we waited until the gates opened. I drove in and parked and then paid the $10 entrance fee and went to the area where it was sighted the day before. Not seeing it here I walked along the trail towards the east end of the park. I heard a quiet yell but wasn't sure of that was from a birder. As I walked closer it was Kevin Christman who was the one trying to alert other birders as he had found the bird! An excellent job by Kevin, he ran to get other birders while I kept my eye on the bird. Everyone present got great looks at the bird!
So......I guess the fourth time was the charm! I've included photos of the Red-legged Thrush Turdus plumbeus rubribes (western Cuban subspecies) as well as the Red-legged Thrush (Turdus Plumbius) from the Bahamas. Check out how different they look, the Cuban one has the reddish underside which makes it quite distinct! I would not be surprised if these two subspecies get split into two distinct species, that would be nice.

10/06/2020

Here is a nice photo of a Short-tailed Hawk. There are dark morph and light morph birds with light morph birds being more common.
This is one of the specialty birds of Florida. There are only about 200 pairs in the U.S. and about 99.9 percent of them are here in Florida. Other birds are the primary diet of the Short-tailed Hawk. They will "kite" in the air high above their prey and then slowly parachute down closer. At the last 100 feet or so they pull their wings in and dive down with their talons outstretched to capture their prey!

08/30/2020

I birded today along the L31W canal west of Homestead this morning. The first mile along the dirt road mostly on the right side, I had no less than 10-Alder Flycatchers. They were calling with the Pip call and some were doing the Free Beer call. We get Alder Flycatchers every fall until early October.
A call can be heard here along with a noisy Ovenbrid, Northern Cardinal and White-eyed Vireo: http://box5791.temp.domains/~southiv3/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Alder-Flycatcher-L32W-canal.wav

07/01/2020

Dry Tortugas National Park consist of seven Islands; Garden Key, Bush Key, Long Key, Loggerhead Key, Hospital Key, Middle Key and East Key. It also includes a large area of reefs all around these keys. On Bush Key, there used to be up to 80,000 Sooty Terns nesting and about 4,000 Brown Noddies. On Long Key 500 Magnificent Frigatebirds were and still are nesting. This is the only known colony in the continental U.S. On Hospital Key and sometimes Middle Key, there are about 80 Masked Bo***es nesting. This is the only know colony of Masked Bo***es in the continental U.S.
This is a truly amazing place to visit, not only for the birds but for the history. Fort Jefferson was made with 16-million bricks and was never completed. It got so heavy that the foundation started to sink. Even if it had been completed, it was obsolete. The reason for that was the invention of the rifled cannon barrel. This would have allowed fired cannon balls to pe*****te the 8-foot thick fort walls.
Hurricane Katrina, Wilma, Irma and a few other storms have passed through in recent years. The Islands have changed a lot and have lost a significant amount of trees. Many of these trees that were inside the fort had fallen over. It would have been easy to stand these native trees back up and stake them. But for whatever reason, that never happened. The trees that could have been saved were left to rot.
The numbers of nesting birds on Bush Key has gone down in big numbers due to the Hurricanes. I'm sure this has happened in the past so things will recover.
I have included some Sooty Tern images as well as a sound recording of birds over the the nesting area. They can be pretty loud!
http://box5791.temp.domains/~southiv3/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Sooty-Terns-Dry-Tortugas.wav

06/22/2020

Black-faced Grassquit has an interesting native range, found from the Northern Bahamas to the north coast of South America. For some odd reason it is rare on Cuba and not found in the Cayman Islands.

This spring we have had three different Black-faced Grassquits, all males. Each of them has built a nest, a round ball of woven grasses and pine needles with a side entrance hole. One bird is at the Blue Hole on Big Pine Key, the other two are in Everglades National Park. The pine forest in Everglades National park have the perfect habitat for grassquits. These are tiny birds just over four inches long. When you see them from a distance, they look pretty plain. But if you can get up close, they are quite attractive.

My photo shows an adult male from just past the main visitor center of Everglades National Park. This bird has been seen here for a couple of months now. He sings his heart out trying to find a mate. I don't think that is going to happen as it is a very rare vagrant bird in Florida. When I took this photo, I was lucky that he flew to the ground close to where I was standing.

05/27/2020

Now this is really cool, the first know location of an Antillean Nighthawk on its wintering grounds. No one knew where that was until now: https://jco.birdscaribbean.org/index.php/jco/article/view/1221
Click on the PDF to read the article.

05/15/2020

Everglades National Park is now open in all areas. I went in there later in the afternoon yesterday with my friend George to see how the restoration area is going along Research Road. This could potentially be a good shorebird area. Once the native grasses grow in, it will not be so good. All of the exotic vegetation as well as the soil, has been scraped out of there. All of the soil and ground up vegetation has been put into mounds. These mounds will have grasses and native vegetation that will take over in a few years.

On our way out of the park, we drove with the windows down to listen for birds. We were excited when I heard a Black-faced Grassquit calling just east of the payment booth. We were not able to see it but I did hear it well.

Today I went back in with on and off rain showers and was able to photograph and record the Black-faced Grassquit.

I'm sure this is the same bird that was found by Rachel DiPietro. That bird was in the employing housing which is closed to the public.

Today it was actively singing moving up and down the road. It would sing from both sides from a 100-yards east of the payment booth, west to just the other side of the payment booth. Hopefully it will stay around for a while.

These birds are native to the Bahamas and many Islands in the West Indies with the exception of Cuba which is odd.

I've added a bad photo as well as a recording that you can hear here:
http://box5791.temp.domains/~southiv3/wp-content/uploads/2020/05/Black-faced-Grassquit-Everglades-entrance-booth.wav

04/06/2020

I think people will like this one. I know that we had some Black Rail researchers here in the state, well; I've been kind of doing my own research for them as well. I think that I have been at it for close to 30-years. They are really cool birds that are very difficult to see because of their small size and marsh habitat that they like. I have been fortunate to have seen quite a few of them as well as getting a few photographs!

In my photo you will see a female to the left and a male to the right. I did not photograph both at the same time, but I did put them together for a really, really neat comparison.

I have been fortunate to have seen them, photographed them and record almost all of their vocalizations. I have even seen a baby Black Rail and have recorded the babies calls which is cool.

I am so glad that studies have recently been done, hopefully this will help in our understanding such a neat bird. I'm sure that this will help with protecting these neat birds as well as their habitat.

03/10/2020

Here is a photo of a first year Spot-breasted Oriole coming into full adult plumage. It will become more orange and start to get more spotting around the black bib.

01/23/2020

Birds of Andro’s Island Bahamas
March 14-17, 2020
Join us for an exciting trip to Andro’s Island in the Bahamas.
Andro’s Island is one of the least explored area in the Western Hemisphere. This makes it a very enjoyable place to be for birding. The Bahamas has many West Indies specialties as well as some of its own endemic species. One of them, the Bahama Oriole which is only found on Andro’s Island. It used to be found on Abaco Island but has not been seen since the 1970’s and perhaps into the early 1980’s. The numbers on Andro’s Island seem to be around 300 birds which makes it a pretty rare species.


Here is a total list of species that we will look for:
• West Indian Whistling Duck
• White-cheeked Pintail
• Least Grebe
• Neotropic Cormorant
• American Kestrel Cuban race
• Zenaida Dove
• Key West Quail-Dove
• Great Lizard Cuckoo
• Smooth-billed Ani
• Cuban Emerald
• Bahama Woodstar
• Hairy Woodpecker Bahamas race
• Cuban Pewee,
• La Sagra’s Flycatcher
• Loggerhead Kingbird
• Thick-billed Vireo
• Bahama Swallow
• Red-legged Thrush
• Bahama Mockingbird
• Pine Warbler Bahamas race,
• Bahama Warbler,
• Bahama Yellowthroat
• Bananaquit
• Western Spindalis
• Black-faced Grassquit
• Greater Antillean Bullfinch
• Bahama Oriole
I only do small group tours, 5-6 people. This is an all inclusive tour which includes round trip airfare from Ft. Lauderdale, all meals, drinks, accommodations as well as guiding.
Cost: $2,600.00 double occupancy; $2,900.00 for single supplement. $500 deposit.

Bahamas tours are always popular and fill fast so book early.
Call: 305-247-3960 or email: [email protected]

11/03/2019

Everyone loves Roseate Spoonbills! Here is a photo of an adult as well as an immature bird.

10/11/2019

Spot-breasted Orioles have been present in south Florida since the late 1940's. They were thought to be introduced into our area. Their normal range is Western Mexico down into Central America. The race that was introduced here, has a beautiful song that they sing in the early morning. Adult birds are often seen together as a breeding pair. In the fall and winter months, you can sometimes see family groups. The most that I have seen is over a dozen together.

They are susceptible to cold weather, if it is too cold, it can kill the birds. Their numbers used to be much higher here in recent years, but the cold weather from I believe it was 2010 killed a lot of Spot-breasted Orioles. Birds that I showed birders for many, many years, were no longer present in areas where I used to find them. We have not had as cold of winters since then, the numbers of orioles have increased. Another problem is the spread of Brown-headed Cowbird, Bronzed Cowbird and Shiny Cowbird in the south Florida area. Each of these species will lay eggs in their nest. I have seen a female Shiny Cowbird go into a nest and possibly lay eggs. I have also seen an adult bird feeding its own young as well as a Bronzed Cowbird young.

It is always a treat to see one while out birding. It is a very pretty bird that a lot of birders want to see! These often occur in the same suburban areas as Red-whiskered Bulbuls.

10/04/2019

Pectoral Sandpiper is a regular shorebird migrant that can often been seen in the plowed farm fields here in the Homestead area. They can be found through out the state in suitable habitat. In the last few years I have seen far fewer shorebirds which can't be good.

10/02/2019

On July 15th, 2019 Shirley Wilkerson and her husband found the second record of Antillean Palm Swift for the U.S. This was on Grassy Key in Marathon Florida Keys. The last time and first time that one was seen was in Key West way back in 1972. Interestingly there were TWO birds present!

Antillean Palm Swift has an interesting distribution, found only on Cuba, Jamaica and Hispaniola. The part that I find interesting is why isn't it found on Puerto Rico just east of Hispaniola which has plenty of suitable habitat for this species? Or why isn't found on many suitable Islands in the Lesser Antilles? One of the many mysteries of the natural world!

I went down to Grassy Key on July 16th with my son and met friends George and Sherry. We were all very luck to see that bird on that day!

Fast forward to September 30th., Luis Gles found another Antillean Palm Swift at the Sombrero Country Club in Marathon eight miles west of the Grassy Key bird. You have to wonder if this is the same bird from July?

What an excellent find by Luis, wow! I never thought that I would have seen this bird in the U.S. when the only record was from so long ago!

I drove down yesterday to Marathon and was able to see the bird that Luis found after about a 30-minute wait. It flew up and down the gulf course during the two hours that I watched it. It was not in my sight for all of that time, but it would fly in now and then. I was hoping to at least get some I.D. shots of the bird which I did.

Happy with my shots, I was getting ready to leave when friends Yve and Homer contacted me to ask where I had seen the bird. They were at the far end of the gulf course that is currently being used. I was at the opposite end where it is under construction. I directed them to my location and helped them see the bird. We all got great looks at it and "High fives" were in order!

Another exciting sighting here in wonderful south Florida!

10/01/2019

Here is a photo of a Great Yellowlegs, larger than a Lesser Yellowlegs with a slightly upturned bill.

09/30/2019

Here is a nice Lesser Yellowlegs at this same small puddle in Homestead. Always a nice bird to see.