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Posted by Brennan Mulrooney on 19:45:34 08/13/07
I wanted to address the issue of migrant swallows, as there has been some talk of Tree Swallows around here lately. I think Bill Pranty covers this quite nicely in his book "A Birder's Guide to Florida" so I'll just quote him. This is on page 316 of the 5th edition, printed in 2005:
"Tree Swallows often are identified in August, but most of these likely refer to immature Barn Swallows, which have short tails and can be nearly pure white below--any Tree Swallow in Florida before October is unusual."
I just spent about half an hour watching swallows move south past my house in Key Largo and saw about 100 Barn Swallows and about 100 Purple Martins. These are by far the most likely migrant species to be seen at this time of year.
Knowing what to expect and what is unexpected is just as valuable as knowing how to identify any given bird, so having a book that addresses status and distribution of the birds of your area is just as important as having a good field guide. Since the exhaustively researched and crushingly thorough "Birdlife of Florida" by Stevenson and Anderson is rather pricey and not that easy to find (though Amazon has two copies right now), I would suggest that Pranty's 5th edition is the best resource for Florida birders. Though the bulk of the book is a site guide, the species accounts and bar graphs are worth the price of the whole book. And no, I don't have any financial interest in this book. Since I already mentioned Amazon, I should say that, to my knowledge, you can't get the 5th edition there. I know you can get it from the American Birding Assoc. and probably at your local nature/book store.
Brennan Mulrooney
Key Largo, FL
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