Central Florida’s ‘Space Coast’ is now widely known as an excellent birdwatching destination, thanks in no small part to the Space Coast Birding & Nature Festival, an annual event previously hosted by the Brevard Nature Alliance, which brought birders from all over the world to the Titusville area every winter for the last 25 years. The area’s avian attractions are numerous and winter birding here can no doubt be spectacular!

Our 5-night tour visits many of the area’s hotspots, including the Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge, where huge numbers of waterfowl & shorebirds overwinter. Florida’s only endemic bird is the Florida Scrub-Jay and we should find it in the area’s scrubby, open woodlands. We will visit a plethora of wetlands (both man-made & natural) where freshwater birds can be seen by the hundreds, and where photo opportunities abound. A visit to some of Central Florida’s piney-woods should produce the federally-endangered Red-cockaded Woodpeckers, as well as Brown-headed Nuthatches and if we’re lucky, Bachman’s Sparrow. We should see Snail Kites patrolling the wetlands looking for Apple Snails and flocks of Sandhill Cranes in the open pastures. As well as many of the expected species there’s plenty of chances for rarities, and over the past few years we have seen Masked Duck, Black-chinned Hummingbird, Common Eider and Scissor-tailed Flycatcher.