Bird Watching at its Best
 With a wide range of natural habitats - from salt marsh and mangrove to oak scrub and flatwoods - Pasco County is home to more than 325 species of birds. Pasco is home to 10 stops along the Great Florida Birding Trail, created by the Florida Fish & Wildlife Commission, are right here in Pasco County! Check them out below. Click here for a glimpse of Pasco's famous Anclote River eagles.
Fledgling Festival Takes Flight on the Nature Coast
Make plans to celebrate the rush of migrating wings north along the Atlantic Flyway over inland Pasco, Citrus, and Hernando counties during the inaugural Nature Coast Birding and Wildlife Festival March 22-24. The weekend will feature a photography contest as well as a variety of programs, activities and walks at several preserves in the tri-county area, including the Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail sites Crews Lake Park, Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park on the Pithlachascotee River, and the Withlacoochee State Forest. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Chinsegut Conservation Center will host exhibits, demonstrators, vendors and many educational opportunities. American kestrels, Eastern bluebirds, limpkins, sandhill cranes, swallow-tailed kites and migrating warblers are among the birds you may encounter during festival outings. Nearly 150 bird species have been identified at Starkey Wilderness Park alone. LeConte’s and Henslow’s sparrows are possible as well as bobolinks are favorites around the dry lake bed at Crews Lake Park.
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Anclote Gulf Park - An extensive fishing pier provides great access to the mudflats and open water to view wintering ducks and feeding shore birds. Expect flyovers from terns and gulls. In winter, watch for loons and horned grebes. Gray kingbirds are possible in summer. |
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Anclote River Park - A small park with a gorgeous waterfront worth checking for egrets and black-bellied plovers on flats and in the shallows of the Anclote River. Osprey nest nearby, as have great horned owls. |
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Crews Lake Wilderness Park - A high tower overlooks Crews Lake, where wintering waterfowl like sandpipers, ring-necked ducks and dunlin loaf are known to forage. Sedge wrens call from grassy margins and migratory songbirds like bobolinks exploit the edges between the wetland and oak hammock. According to the Great Florida Birding Trail, a "must see." |
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Green Swamp West - This 37,000-acre property safeguards the Green Swamp, which gives rise to the Withlacoochee River, while providing excellent access to upland pasture, sandhills, cypress domes, riverfront and "wildcat swamp.'' A bike makes the size of this site more manageable. |
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James E. Grey Preserve - This 100-acre park includes a canoe launch and trail along the Cotee River with easy views of an eagle's nest. Look for yellow-crowned night herons and limpkins by the water; migrants like cedar waxwings in the canopy. |
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Jay B. Starkey Wilderness Park - Behind the nature center, take the boardwalk out across the floodplain forest to the Cotee River. The best birding by far is along the paved bike trail. In nice weather, there are bird walks the first Saturday of each month. Loaner optics are available at the nature center. |
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Key Vista Nature Park -This small nature park provides hiking trails through sand pine uplands, a viewing tower of mud flats where shorebirds feed at low tide, as well as a sandy beach on the south side good for spotting terns and skimmers. |
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Robert K. Rees Park / Green Key - This peninsular park is a birding gem, with clapper rails, reddish egrets and roseate spoonbills year-round, plus wintering shorebirds, marsh and sedge wrens and breeding gray kingbirds. |
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Werner-Boyce Salt Springs State Park - This vast park stretches nearly 3,500 acres along the Gulf of Mexico. A one-mile scrub trail is currently open and a boardwalk is planned. Monthly bird walks are available. Call (727) 816-1890. |
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Withlacoochee River Park - This park features an observation tower overlooking sandhill bluffs, as well as a small wet prairie and seasonal wetlands. A great place for family birding, with picnic shelters, trails, restrooms and a canoe launch. |
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