The Last Ani

Our longest-standing birding "white whale" was slain last week in the Everglades. After more than a decade of earnest searching in any known hide-out or reported location, Andy and I finally saw a Smooth-Billed Ani. Mind you, this is a small, plain black bird, about the same size as a blackbird or a grackle, with its only outstanding feature being a rather heavy black beak... so you're probably wondering what the fuss was about. I don't know that I can explain it either. It's just that it had eluded us for so many years, and we deliberately went out of our way so many times in hopes of finding it, after so-and-so birder geek reported one here or such-and-such guide book said there was good habitat there. Even this time, we had to go to the same spot on the Anhinga Trail on 3 separate days before it showed itself. And then all of a sudden, there it was, calmly preening like it was no big thing after all.

The Ani

The sad part is that Anis really are declining rapidly in Florida. They are a very gregarious and social bird, and in the caribbean where they are common, they travel around in large nomadic flocks. Ten years ago my mom saw a fairly large flock in Coral Gables (Miami) but nothing like that has been reported on the birding listservs for years. This particular Ani we saw has been at Anhinga Trail pretty regularly for the last year, and he's always been alone. Not a happy life for a social species. So although I will say he looked rather content the morning we saw him, he's likely one of the last of his kind in Florida.

On a happier note, we also saw many other cool birds in the Everglades and Keys on our trip- enjoy these photos Andy took!

Purple Gallinule

Anhinga drying its wings

A fritillary of some sort

Brown Pelicans

Pelican in mangroves

American Bittern

Great Egret

Heron on Cypress Tree


Limpkin


Great Egret

Great Egret fishing