June Challenge

Tuesday, June 30th

June is the absolute slowest time of the year for birding in South Florida. A couple of years ago The June Challenge was created to stimulate interest in getting out to bird during the doldrums, by for offering a friendly contest to see which county could amass the most sightings. I'm not officially participating, but I'm still trying to find at least a hundred species within Lee County.

1 Black-bellied Whistling-Duck


2 Fulvous Whistling-Duck


3 Muscovy Duck

4 Wood Duck

5 Eurasian Wigeon

6 Mottled Duck

Mallard x Mottled Duck cross. 

7 Northern Bobwhite


8 Double-crested Cormorant


9 Anhinga

10 American White Pelican

11 Brown Pelican

12 Least Bittern


13 Great Blue Heron

14 Great Egret

15 Snowy Egret


16 Little Blue Heron

17 Tricolored Heron


18 Reddish Egret

19 Cattle Egret


20 Green Heron


21 Black-crowned Night-Heron


22 Yellow-crowned Night-Heron

23 White Ibis

24 Glossy Ibis


25 Roseate Spoonbill


26 Black Vulture


27 Turkey Vulture


28 Osprey

29 Swallow-tailed Kite

30 Snail Kite


31 Bald Eagle

32 Red-shouldered Hawk

33 Red-tailed Hawk


34 Common Gallinule

35 American Coot

36 Limpkin

37 Sandhill Crane

38 Black-necked Stilt

39 American Oystercatcher


40 Black-bellied Plover

41 Wilson's Plover


42 Semipalmated Plover

43 Killdeer


44 Willet

45 Marbled Godwit

46 Ruddy Turnstone

47 Sanderling


48 Semipalmated Sandpiper

49 Short-billed Dowitcher

50 Laughing Gull


51 Ring-billed Gull

52 Least Tern


53 Royal Tern


54 Sandwich Tern


55 Black Skimmer

56 Rock Pigeon


57 Eurasian Collared-Dove

58 Common Ground-Dove


59 White-winged Dove


60 Mourning Dove


61 Burrowing Owl

A Juvenile Burrowing Owl

62 Barred Owl

63 Common Nighthawk


64 Chimney Swift


65 Red-headed Woodpecker

66 Red-bellied Woodpecker


67 Downy Woodpecker


68 Northern Flicker

69 Pileated Woodpecker


70 Monk Parakeet

71 Nanday Parakeet


72 Great Crested Flycatcher

73 Gray Kingbird

74 Loggerhead Shrike

75 White-eyed Vireo


76 Blue Jay


77 Florida Scrub-Jay

78 Fish Crow

79 Northern Rough-winged Swallow


80 Tufted Titmouse

81 Carolina Wren


82 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher


83 Eastern Bluebird

84 Brown Thrasher


85 Northern Mockingbird

86 European Starling

87 Northern Parula


88 Pine Warbler


89 Prairie Warbler

90 Northern Cardinal

91 Red-winged Blackbird

92 Eastern Meadowlark

93 Common Grackle


94 Boat-tailed Grackle

95 House Sparrow

96 Cooper's Hawk

97 Purple Gallinule

Well I didn't find one hundred species. Came close though. Some species missed that I expected to find included Crested Caracara, Wild Turkey, Wood Stork and Eastern Towhee.