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14 - Skimmer and Shorebirds
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Every winter hundreds of thousands of birds migrate to Florida Bay to spend the winter. Shorebirds like the short-billed dowitcher (Limnodromus griseus) and willet (Catoptrophorus semipalmatus) as well as black skimmers (Rynchops niger), terns, and gulls are common throughout the Bay anywhere mudflats are exposed. As the tide rises, dry ground becomes a commodity and birds crowd onto very small sandbars, often fighting with each other to make room. Once the birds have settled in, they will wait for the tide to fall, once again exposing the mudflats where they return to feed.
Snake Bight, Everglades National Park, Florida.
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