Posted by Joe Montes de Oca on April 28, 2020 at 23:59:39
Hi birders of South Florida! At the bottom of the post are some birds we don't have photos/audio of for the City Nature Challenge, which ended yesterday, Monday. We made it to 100 bird species but are still missing some expected birds! If you photographed or recorded audio of any of the below species in Miami-Dade, Broward or Monroe from Friday to Monday, it would be a big contribution if you could upload them to iNaturalist.org :-) The website is pretty user-friendly and asks that you include a location. You can be specific or just click on a general area if you prefer. You can also obscure the location if it was at your home and you don't want the location online. If you don't have time to upload them, you can send them to me (jmont034 -at- fiu.edu) and I will create a profile for you and upload them for you!! We are trying to have as many species as possible. As of right now we have documented 1,060 species --of everything-- in Dade, Broward and Monroe. This includes plants, insects, birds, reptiles, fungi etc. etc.... all organisms! That number does not include captive/cultivated species such as garden plants, which we have been actively labeling as such to only show true wild biodiversity. Here is the list. I tried to loosely group them to make it easier to look through them. Also remember you can press ctrl + f to search through a web page for a word. Birds we are missing for the South Florida City Nature Challenge (CNCSOFLO): Killdeer Black-bellied plover Semipalmated plover Piping plover Ruddy turnstone Semipalmated sandpiper Least sandpiper Solitary sandpiper Short-billed dowitcher Black skimmer Sandwich tern Least tern Red-breasted merganser Blue-winged teal American coot Pied-billed grebe Reddish egret Glossy ibis Snowy egret Roseate spoonbill Black-crowned night heron Belted kingfisher Merlin Cooper's hawk Red-tailed hawk Short-tailed hawk Barn owl Great horned owl Black-whiskered vireo Red-eyed vireo Yellow-throated vireo American kestrel Blue-headed vireo Ruby-throated hummingbird Least flycatcher Eastern kingbird Summer tanager Scarlet tanager Yellow-billed cuckoo Veery Brown thrasher Pine warbler Black-throated green warbler Hooded warbler Prothonotoary warbler Northern waterthrush House finch Black-faced grassquit Chimney swift Tree swallow Cave swallow Cliff swallow Any species you can contribute are a big help and feel free to check the website out and post any other nature photos you took from Friday-Monday. The point of the challenge is to observe as many species as possible and get the public involved with citizen science, what's not to love?? Check out some of the observations here and click around through the filters/search to see how the data is available to the public to help us all learn more about the biodiversity in our backyard and beyond: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?order_by=votes&place_id=any&project_id=60315&subview=table Note that the most faved observation so far is an amethyst hairsteak! A critically endangered and very hard to find butterfly... awesome find by @cattleya721 Some other awesome observations if you have a little more time on your hands: Sargassum fish observed by @lkel21: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43231201 Common gallinule feeding its chick by @kuchipatchis : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43437226 Double-crested cormorant feeding on a spotted tilpia by @junelenny: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43765983 Critically endangered and ultra rare amethys hairsteak by @cattleya721: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43750479 Nymph planthopper species by @jcs13: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43460452 Barred owl by @evergladesnatalie : https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43523688 Corn snake by @lisnel: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43791818 Delta flower scarab by @jaykeller: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43797676 Rainbow scarab beetle by @adamold: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43185377 Blooming big-mouth star orchid by @juddpatterson: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43193770 Cage mushroom by @kwmermaid: https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/43638516 Thanks and hope you can join in on the fun, Joe