Fall Bird Migration in Florida

Q: Where are Florida migration counts published?

Florida Keys Hawkwatch daily raptor count on HawkCount, published daily, September 1 to November 15. A count is a reading of one day at one place, and the totals can double or halve between one week and the next as fronts pass, so the trend across the season is the useful reading rather than any single figure. The count page is linked from this page.

The winter terminus of the eastern greater sandhill crane migration, some 25,000 birds arriving in November and December, and a Florida Keys hawkwatch at a state park where sharp-shinned and broad-winged hawks pass by the thousand each fall.

Agency viewing sites

Species documented

Mapped

Where to stand

Public viewing sites in Florida

Every place below is one an agency itself describes for watching the fall passage, with the agency named and linked, the species it documents there, the months it names as the peak, and the facility that exists: a tour route, a platform, a tower, a visitor centre. Where the agency wrote a sentence worth reading, it is quoted exactly.

Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, La Chua Trail and Bolen Bluff viewing platform StateMarquee site

A 16,000-acre basin marsh and wet prairie south of Gainesville, ringed by hammocks and flatwoods

Sandhill crane

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

The FWC's Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail entry says large numbers of migratory sandhill cranes winter here from November to March, alongside the resident Florida sandhill cranes present all year. The La Chua Trail gives access to the prairie wetland with its winter waterfowl and raptors (no pets), and the Bolen Bluff Trail runs through hardwood forest to a viewing platform over the prairie. The staffed visitor center at the main entrance, 100 Savannah Boulevard, Micanopy, has exhibits, recent-sightings information and loaner binoculars; the park is open 8 am to sunset with an admission fee.

Run by Florida State Parks (Department of Environmental Protection), described on the FWC Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail

Curry Hammock State Park, Florida Keys Hawkwatch StateMarquee site

Rockland hammock and beach on Little Crawl Key in the Middle Keys, on the Overseas Highway near Marathon

Broad-winged hawkSharp-shinned hawk

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec

The FWC trail entry says the park hosts the Florida Keys Hawkwatch between August and November, with staff on hand from 8 am to 4 pm to interpret the migration while counting the thousands of buteos, accipiters, falcons and eagles that pass the viewing area each fall; the park address is 56200 Overseas Highway, Marathon. The HawkCount profile gives a September 1 to November 15 count season run from the deck of the campground bathhouse, with sharp-shinned hawks averaging about 2,500 a season (1,812 on October 12, 2025) and broad-winged hawks about 4,000 (season high 7,236 in 2012), alongside the peregrine falcon flight for which the site is best known.

Run by Florida Keys Hawkwatch count hosted by Curry Hammock State Park (Florida State Parks), described on the FWC Great Florida Birding and Wildlife Trail

Before you drive out to Florida

Viewing in Florida is run by Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, whose own page is the one to read the night before.

That page carries the current picture: whether the auto tour route or platform is open, which units are closed for the season, festival dates, and where the agency counts birds, this week’s count.

Never assume a bird. Cranes, geese and swans move with the weather, so a staging area that held thousands on Tuesday can be nearly empty on Saturday after a front passes, and a warm autumn holds birds to the north for weeks. Never assume access either: a refuge road can be gated, flooded or closed for a unit without notice. Check with the agency before you travel, and stay on the platform, road or tour route it designates when you get there.

Links verified 2026-09-19. If one has moved, search the agency by name.

The map

Florida sites, refuges and the reporting record

Viewing sites in Florida, with the national wildlife refuges in the state drawn underneath. The coloured grid is where people have uploaded a verified sandhill crane record to iNaturalist in September, October, November and December, brighter where more have been logged. It is a map of reports rather than of birds: it thickens around refuges, car parks and towns because that is where observers stand, and it shows past reports rather than birds present today. Pins are public viewing sites an agency itself describes; grey dots are US Fish and Wildlife Service refuges and hatcheries, drawn because the refuge system is where most of the staging happens.

When

When the passage peaks in Florida

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, sandhill crane species profile puts the Florida peak at November and December, when the migratory greater sandhill cranes move in; they leave in March and April. That describes a pattern across past autumns. The week itself swings with the weather: a cold front to the north moves cranes and geese south in a single night, and a warm spell holds them for weeks. Dawn and the last hour before dusk are when cranes and geese move between the fields and the water, and that movement is the spectacle the platforms are built for.

Florida is where the eastern population of greater sandhill cranes stops: the FWC says about 25,000 migratory greater sandhill cranes move into the state in November and December, more than doubling the resident Florida sandhill crane population of 4,000 to 5,000, and leave in March and April. Paynes Prairie, the great Alachua savanna south of Gainesville, is the state park the FWC's birding trail ties to that wintering flock. The other fall concentration is at the far end of the peninsula, where raptors funnelling down the Keys pass Curry Hammock State Park; sharp-shinned and broad-winged hawks are counted there in the thousands alongside the falcon flight. Florida's resident sandhill cranes do not migrate, so the state has no staging spectacle of the Indiana or Tennessee kind; what it has is the arrival.

Below, one curve per species the agencies document in Florida: every research grade observation members of the public have uploaded to iNaturalist for the state, by calendar month across every year the platform holds, with September to December shaded. Counts of uploads, so they measure observers as well as birds, and the shape is worth reading where the absolute numbers are not.

Sandhill crane

18,822 research grade sandhill cranes observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Florida across every year the platform holds, and 30 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is March. An autumn month carries about 0.87 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in April, so a bar that rises after that is the stronger signal. Counts of what people reported, measuring observers as well as birds. See the autumn records.

Broad-winged hawk

734 research grade broad-winged hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Florida across every year the platform holds, and 45 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is November. An autumn month carries about 1.66 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in April, so a bar that rises after that is the stronger signal. Counts of what people reported, measuring observers as well as birds. See the autumn records.

Sharp-shinned hawk

330 research grade sharp-shinned hawks observations have been uploaded to iNaturalist for Florida across every year the platform holds, and 58 percent of them fall in the four shaded autumn months. The busiest month in the record is October. An autumn month carries about 2.78 times as many uploads as an average month outside autumn. People upload most of everything in April, so a bar that rises after that is the stronger signal. Counts of what people reported, measuring observers as well as birds. See the autumn records.

Sandhill cranes flying in a loose line across a pale open sky, necks held straight out in front and long legs trailing behind them — Sandhill cranes crossing a refuge on the morning flight. The movement is watched from the designated pullout or platform: the birds settle on shallow water for the night, and the roost itself is the one place a viewing site is never placed. “Sandhill cranes flying over Sherburne National Wildlife Refuge (24542820818)” by USFWS Midwest Region from United States, CC BY 2.0

Latest reports

What people have reported in Florida lately

The most recent research grade autumn observation of each species that anyone has uploaded to iNaturalist for Florida, as a date and the platform’s own coarse locality. Evidence that people do find sandhill crane and broad-winged hawk here. Each is one bird on one past day: the flocks move with the weather, so where they are this week is what the agency page and its counts answer.

Checking the most recent autumn uploads for Florida on iNaturalist...

Where Florida counts are published

Florida Keys Hawkwatch daily raptor count on HawkCount daily, September 1 to November 15 | Florida

Elsewhere

Other states with agency designated migration viewing

Questions about Florida

Where can I watch fall migration in Florida?

Florida has 2 agency designated viewing sites in this inventory: Paynes Prairie Preserve State Park, La Chua Trail and Bolen Bluff viewing platform and Curry Hammock State Park, Florida Keys Hawkwatch. Every one is a place Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission or another public agency itself describes for wildlife viewing, listed above with the facility that exists there, the months the agency names and a link to the agency page. The winter terminus of the eastern greater sandhill crane migration, some 25,000 birds arriving in November and December, and a Florida Keys hawkwatch at a state park where sharp-shinned and broad-winged hawks pass by the thousand each fall.

When is the fall migration peak in Florida?

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, sandhill crane species profile puts the Florida peak at November and December, when the migratory greater sandhill cranes move in; they leave in March and April. That describes a pattern across past autumns, and the week itself swings with the weather: a cold front to the north moves cranes and geese south in a single night, and a warm spell holds them for weeks. The months named site by site above are the agency's own for each place, and the agency page carries what it says about this season.

Which species are documented at the Florida sites?

Sandhill cranes at 1 site, broad-winged hawks at 1 site and sharp-shinned hawks at 1 site. The species listed for each site are the ones the agency itself documents there in the fall, so a site may hold other migrants the agency page happens to leave out. The month curves further down show when people have reported each of these species in Florida, as a count of uploads to iNaturalist across every year the platform holds.

Will I definitely see sandhill cranes in Florida?

A sighting is never certain. Migrating birds move with weather fronts, so a staging area that held thousands on Tuesday can be nearly empty on Saturday after a front passes, and a warm autumn holds birds to the north for weeks. The sites above are the places where an agency has recorded enough birds often enough to build viewing provision, which is the best odds available anywhere. Arrive at first light or in the last hour before dusk, when cranes and geese move between the fields and the water, bring more magnification than you think you need, and stay on the platform, road or tour route the agency designates.

Who publishes current conditions for Florida?

Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, linked from the note on this page and from each site above. Its pages carry the things that change: refuge road and auto tour status, seasonal closures of units, festival dates, and in several states a dated crane or goose count from the refuge staff. Those change faster than any third party page can follow, so the agency page is the one to read before you travel.

Where are Florida migration counts published?

Inventory compiled 2026-09-19 from the agency pages linked above. Agency text is quoted exactly with its source named and linked; the observation curves and latest reports are counts and dates from public uploads to iNaturalist.

Winter eagle watchingThe same refuges and rivers three months later, when the ice concentrates the eagles.Florida waterfowl seasonThe hunting calendar on the same marshes, worth knowing before standing on a dike in October.Florida daylight hoursThe dawn and dusk flights are the spectacle, and the clock change moves them.