While bike-riding at the Flatwoods Wilderness Park, I couldn't help to notice this wonderful bird staring from a tree at its surroundings. Our presence there didn't seem to mind it until I got close enough to get a picture of it, and most likely become an annoyance. These birds are expected to live about an average two years in the wild, but have been known to live up to 20 years in captivity. These birds are also called hen hawks and are a nuisance to poultry farmers who some times resort to killing them. An excellent resource to learn more about this type of hawk can be found on the Animal Diversity Web from the University of Michigan Museum of Zoology.

The great heron has to be one of the most beautiful birds I've ever seen. This one in particular was in the pond behind my house, standing in a very interesting position in which I had never seen any bird. It looked as if it was sunbathing since it was facing West in the late afternoon, so that it was facing the sun directly. This bird is fairly large at about 3-1/2 feet of height in its position in the photo. I found very little information about this bird online, but one of the best resources was this from TigerHomes.org (a private animal sanctuary).

Here in Florida, you can find these ducks just about in any lake. They are very large in size, closely in size to geese... sometimes looking as colorful as any goose, and of course, sometimes confused with them. These birds are originally from South America, and are believed to have migrated about 250 years ago.

They have very little fear for humans, as they are many times fed by them(us). This Muscovy duck family was near a very beautiful bridge inside the University of South Florida. They co-exist with us and many other species of animals including squirrels, fish, and turtles.

You can read more about these colorful birds from here:

• Duck Haven, Inc. Society with the purpose of protecting this type of ducks.
• Gulf States Marine Fisheries Commission. Excellent information page.

Sandhill Cranes like to be fed by you, if any comes by your backyard and you feed it once, they will keep coming and will make some really loud and noisy begging for food. An interesting paradigm is that if you give them chicken, they will eat it (as a disclaimer I only know somebody that did it). I love these birds and the fact that they will let you get close and are not camera shy. Anyways, about a year ago I find a group of three (mother, father, and baby) of these cranes outside McDonald's as I was leaving with my Chicken sandwich combo with fries. Outside the main door of the restaurant I saw this group of birds, so I decided to give them a couple of fries... I naturally started with the young one. As I was giving the second fry to the younger bird, the biggest bird started hissing aggressively at me, basically demanding all the fries (and maybe the chicken sandwich too). I give it a couple, and it still persists and got more aggresive. At this point, I was already weighting my options on how to get into my car and eat my fries in peace. This bird was so aggressive that one of my defensive options was to kick it... but, as I turn around and look into McDonald's I see about two really young children looking at the show. Can you imagine the p.sychological implications for these children if they had seen me give the boot to this beautiful creature of God? My solution in this case was to give one fry at a time to the bird while walking back to my car without turning my back to the bird.

I took this picture this June (2006) in the pond in my backyard. It turns out that while the dove in the left of the picture was trying to feed on the bird seeds my neighbor puts on the grass, this little gator sneaked in. The dove was aware of my presence while I was trying to take this picture, and my only worry besides taking the picture was that the gator would take advantage to jump into action and secure the meal. Fortunately for the dove, it lived beyond this episode since it flew away when the gator jumped out of the water.