With so many different bird species having a home in Florida, it is no less than heaven for bird watchers. More than 500 different bird species have been found throughout the state. As a result, Florida is one of the best birding regions in all of North America. While some species will migrate to warmer climates in the winter, others will spend the entire year in Florida. In today’s article, we will be talking about the beautiful white birds that are found in this state. Here is the list of 21 amazing white birds in Florida,
White Birds in Florida
1. Wood Stork
Wood Stork is a flawless flier and one of the long legged birds in the world. The breathtakingly beautiful bird soars through the air on its extended neck and legs. The majority of this wading bird’s head is bald, and it reaches just over 3 feet tall. Notably, it is far taller than its wetland buddies. It has a large, long beak that dips into the water to feed on fish and crustaceans. The Wood Stork has a hefty, shaped like a football, profile. It often appears to have a humpback during flight. It is totally white in hue, save for its black tail and flight feathers.
Also Read: 10 Different Types of Black Birds In Florida
2. Whooping Cranes
The adult Whooping Crane has a white body, a dark pointy bill, and a red crown on top of its head. The crown has a faded red texture. The bird with a long neck comes with striking black tips on their flight wings making them stand out when they are in flight. However, the juveniles are cinnamon-brown in appearance. These cranes generate fairly loud sounds that can be heard from several miles away. They are renowned for generating a collective “unison call” after courting, when defending their territories, and especially early in the morning.
Also Read: 10 Amazing Birds Chirping At Night
Image Source: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters
3. White Ibis
One of the most frequently observed white birds in Florida is the White Ibis. This bird, which prides itself on being gregarious, continues to feed and roost in a flock. Although it typically favors big colonies, bushes, and trees as its home, it typically relocates every year. It flies with a body resembling a football, complete with long legs and a straight neck. These birds’ diets are somewhat variable. They primarily eat crabs, crayfish, and crustaceans. They also eat insects, snakes, small fish, and frogs on occasion.
Also Read: 10 Beautiful Gray Birds In The World
4. Masked Booby
Large seabird belonging to the gannet and booby bird families, the masked booby. Due to their size, these birds are also referred to as “blue-faced boobies” or “masked gannets.” Similar to other Sulids, the Masked Booby has an aerodynamic body shape, a long neck, thin wings, a pointed tail, and a long, pointed bill.
From the front, they are all white with a white breast, belly, and rump. Their heads, backs of their necks, and wingtips are completely black, with a small white streak on the neck. They are entirely white, with the exception of their faces, when you observe them in flight.
Also Read: 10 Most Beautiful Black And Orange Birds
Image Source: USFWS – Pacific Region
5. Cattle Egret
The Cattle Egret is considerably smaller than other herons. It has two short legs, a small, thick neck, and two circular wings that are about medium length. The linear, dagger-like bill of this bird is far thicker than other birds’ bills. Its entire body is white, and its legs and bill are a vivid yellow color. The Cattle Egret is a native of Africa, did you know that? In 1953, they came to North America, where they spread out quite swiftly. In other regions of the world, these birds forage among cattle, camels, ostriches, rhinos, and camels.
Also Read: 10 Amazing Flightless Birds On Planet Earth
6. Snow Goose
Snow Goose is one of the types of geese found only in North America. It is a medium-sized goose. Carl Linnaeus formally introduced their species in 1785. These birds breed in northern Siberia, Canada, Alaska, and Greenland, and migrate to warmer parts of the continent, such as southwestern British Columbia and parts of the United States to Mexico. Even though they aren’t permanent residents of Florida, they can be found in large numbers throughout the state, especially during their migratory season. It is also listed as one of the black and white birds in the world.
Also Read: 10 Most Beautiful Black Birds with Yellow Beaks
Image Source: Wikimedia
7. Bufflehead
Buffleheads are one of the ducks with white stripes on thier heads that belongs to the goldeneye genus. Their scientific name roughly translates to “bull-headed,” owing to their unusually shaped bulbous heads. These birds are sexually dimorphic, with the males being larger than the females. Males have black faces with green iridescence and a thick black streak on their back, but the rest of their body, including their wings, is white.
Also Read: Top 10 Most Beautiful Blue-Colored Birds
Image Source: Wikipedia
8. Juvenile Little Blue Heron
With a thin neck and long legs, the juvenile Little Blue Heron is a rather small bird. It has a strong, straightened, spear-like bill and a pair of rounded wings. Despite its name, the Snowy Egret is possibly this bird’s closest relative. Know why? When young, it resembles another almost exactly, but as it gets older, it molts into a deeper blue tint. It is also listed as one of the blue birds in Florida.
This species is typically evasive and apprehensive of danger. It is known to move around by wading slowly or soaring to other sites. Additionally, it typically builds colonies of nests on trees with other wading birds and herons. This bird forages in marshes, looking for food with its long neck.
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9. Ross’s Goose
Ross’s Goose is a small subspecies of the Snow Goose, with a white, stocky body, a shorter neck, and a stubby bill that is tightly packed into a triangle shape. This gregarious species is known to establish populous flocks on its own, and the lesser populations have also been found to band together with the enormous flocks of Snow Geese. One of the new england birds prefers to forage in marshes and cultivated fields because it is an herbivore. The Ross’s Goose in a dark morph is exceedingly uncommon but not unheard of.
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Image Source: Wikimedia
10. Swallow-Tail Kite
Medium-sized Swallow-tail Kites are members of the Pernine Raptor family. Marks Catesby, an English naturalist, made the first discovery of their species in 1731. These kites can be found all over the Americas. While Swallow-Tail kites are year-round residents in South America, the breeding populations in Central and North America migrate there in the winter.
They live in wetlands and forests where they either build their nests in balmy cypress trees or loblolly pines. Black and white stripes are in sharp contrast on the Swallow-tail Kites’ bodies. Their heads, necks, breasts, bellies, rumps, and details are all white, while their backs, flight feathers, tails, feet, and bills are all black.
Also Read: Top 10 Interesting Facts About Peacocks
Image Source: Wikimedia
11. Great Egret
The great egret also known as the common egret, large egret, or great white egret can be seen in all continents except Antarctica. The preferred location of the bird species includes regions surrounded by streams, lakes, ponds, mud flats, saltwater, and freshwater marshes.
As of now, 4 subspecies of great egret are known to humans with an avarage lifespan of 15 years in the wild and up to 22 years in captivity. The bird species is completely white along with a long orange-yellow bill and dark gray legs. Great Egret feeds on fish, frogs, small mammals, and occasionally small reptiles and insects.
Also Read: Top 10 Amazing Facts About Owl Legs
12. Black-Crowned Night Heron
The black-crowned night heron is mostly seen in the wetland regions throughout the world except in Polar Regions. Talking about its appearance, it is black and brown in color along with a white belly and red eyes The legs are yellow in color and long white plumes on the back of the head can be seen. It primarily feeds on fish, krill, crustaceans, frogs, insects, small mammals, and small birds. The avarage lifespan of a black-crowned night heron is upto 20 years in the wild. They are seen in colonies of upto 12 nests in a single tree and these colonies are known to humans for more than 50 years.
13. American White Pelican
The American white pelican scientifically known as Pelecanus erythrorhyncho is a large soaring bird that breeds in interior North America and can move into the coasts of Central America and South America during the winter season. It can grow upto the size of between 50 to 75 in and its average weight is between 8 to 30 lbs. The main threats to the American white pelican are foxes, coyotes, and even big birds such as seagulls and owls. They are seen in large flocks of upto 1000.
14. Laughing Gull
Laughing Gull one of the beautiful white birds in Florida scientifically known as Leucophaeus atricilla can grow upto 16 inches in length. Talking about his appearance, the body is white in color and is covered with a slate-gray mantle and a nearly black hood which extends further on the throat than on the back of the head. The bird species feeds near the sea and it is comprised of fish and marine animals picked from beaches, estuaries, and salt marshes. The avarage lifespan of a laughing gull is upto 15 years in the wild.
Image Source: Wikimedia
15. Forster’s Tern
Forster’s Tern is one of the popular white birds in Florida that looks similar to the Common Tern. The bird species feeds on small fish where it dives into the water to catch its prey. Forster’s Tern is a medium-sized bird species that can grow between 13 to 15 inches in length with a total wingspan of between 30 to 31 inches. The bird species prefer to thrive in regions with freshwater and saltwater marshes and estuaries, however, during the winters it is seen in marshes, lakes, rivers, and beaches. Terns are one of the most popular webbed feet birds in the world.
Image Source: Wikimedia
16. Snowy Egret
The Snowy Egret is a small white bird heron whose scientific name is Egretta thula. The genus of the bird species comes from Provençal French for the little egret, aigrette, which is a diminutive of aigron, ‘heron’. The bird species is an American counterpart of the very similar Old World little egret, which has become established in the Bahamas. The snowy egret is one of the long-legged birds whose body length is between 22.1 to 26.0 inches and whose average weight is upto 370 grams. The bird species are native to North, Central, and South America.
17. Ring-billed Gull
Ring-billed Gull is one of the animals that live in lakes and preys on fish, rodents, grains, seeds, nuts, fruits, worms, insects, and garbage. The natural predators of bird species are red foxes, raccoons, weasels, minks, owls, ravens, and other gulls. The garage wieght is between 300 to 700 grams and the avarage lifespan is upto 23 years. The biggest threat to the bird species is human persecution and pesticide use. The bird species is mostly seen in the regions of North America and Central America.
18. Caspian Tern
The Caspian tern is a species of tern and the genus name is from the Ancient Greek hudros, “water”, and Latin progne, “swallow”. The body length is between 47 to 54 cm in length and the average weight is between 530 to 782 grams. The species priory feeds on fish and occasionally on large insects, the young and eggs of other birds, and rodents. Caspian Tern nests along the Gulf Coast are one of the direct species to be impacted by the BP Oil Spill Disaster of 2010.
19. White-tailed Kite
The White-tailed Kite is a small raptor species that is mostly seen in western North America and parts of South America. The body length is between 35 to 42 cm in length and the average weight is between 250 to 380 grams. The avarage lifespan of a White-tailed kite is upto 6 years. They are mostly seen in the regions of North America, Central America, and parts of South America. The dietary habit is carnivorous in nature and feeds on rodents, howvever, they also feed on birds, insects, lizards, snakes, and frogs.
20. Great Blue Heron
The great Blue Heron is one of the blue birds in Florida whose scientific name is Ardea herodias and belongs to the family Ardeidae. The bird species is known for it cleaning its feathers and using its own feathers like a washcloth. This can be done by the unique feathers on the front of the chest that always grow and easily fray. The blue and white birds hunts by wading through shallow water in search of food. Great blue herons are relatively light since they have hollow bones.
21. Northern Gannet
The Northern Gannet is a seabird that belongs to the family Sulidae. The bird species is native to the coasts of the Atlantic Ocean, breeding in Western Europe and Northeastern North America. The body length is between 87 to 100 cm and the average weight is between 2 to 3.6 kilograms. These are gregarious birds that breed in large colonies and forage in groups at sea. The dietary habit is carnivores in nature and feeds on sardines, anchovies, haddock, smelt, Atlantic cod, and other shoal-forming species.
These are the list of 21 different types of white birds in Florida. Kindly share and do post your comments.
