The Important Bird Areas of Florida - National Audubon Society

The Important Bird Areas of Florida: 2000–2002 – Pranty – 2-Jul-02 21(Save Our Rivers land acquisition programs of Florida’s water management districts), YBP (YearsBefore Present).• Two symbols are used for convenience in this manuscript: a plus (+) is used to denote and easily findall references, while a diamond (♦) is used to denote the initial listing of the English names of allplants and animals.Map ProductionThe maps in this book were produced with ArcView® GIS 3.1 software +(ESRI 1999) using publicdomain coverages, as well as coverages created by the IBA Coordinator. Draft maps, which wereavailable on the Florida IBA website beginning in early 2000, used a public-lands coverage a few yearsold and therefore somewhat outdated. In mid-2002, the Florida Natural Areas Inventory provided an upto-datepublic-lands coverage, from which the maps in this book were produced. These maps illustrateevery IBA, along with several other land and water features.HABITATSFlorida is an immensely diverse state, ranging from the Red Hills of Tallahassee to the tropicalhammocks of the Florida Keys. The Florida Natural Areas Inventory +(FNAI 1990) identified 81 naturalcommunities in the state, with 13 of these endemic. Detailed information on many of Florida's habitatcommunities is described below, insomuch as habitat is one of the primary factors that determine thedistribution and abundance of the state's avifauna. Information on Florida's habitats was taken extensivelyfrom the chapters in +Myers and Ewel (1990), a superb resource, while bird data were taken from+Pranty (1996a).Pine Flatwoods were the most extensive upland habitat in Florida prior to human settlement. Today, theyare perhaps the most threatened. Flatwoods are characterized by flat or gently rolling, relatively poorlydrained soils composed of typically open-canopy ♦longleaf pine (Pinus palustris), ♦slash pine (P.elliottii), or ♦pond pine (P. serotina) forests with a low understory of ♦saw palmetto (Serenoa repens),♦threeawns (i.e., wiregrass; Aristida spp.), ♦gallberry (Ilex glabra), and others shrubs, forbs, andgrasses. Longleaf pine predominated in the Panhandle and northern half of the Peninsula, with slash pineflatwoods most common in southern Florida. Low-intensity lightning-induced growing-season firesburned flatwoods on a frequent basis, perhaps every year or two, which kept the forest open and lacking ashrub understory. Fire-maintained pine flatwoods originally covered over half of Florida's land area, buttheir range has been greatly reduced by development, agriculture, and silviculture. Furthermore, fireexclusion has impacted virtually all remaining flatwoods by increasing the tree density and greatlyincreasing the shrub layer, allowing invasion of oaks and other hardwoods. In southeastern Florida andsome of the Florida Keys, the flatwoods are composed of ♦“South Florida” slash pines (P. elliottii var.densa) and are called Pine Rocklands because the state's limestone base is close to, or at, the “soil”surface. The understory of pine rocklands is composed largely of plants of West Indian origin, includingseveral species of palms. Nearly all of this habitat has been destroyed for residential development andagriculture; Everglades National Park and National Key Deer Refuge on Big Pine Key preserve thelargest examples remaining. Characteristic breeding birds of Florida's varied pine flatwoods include theSwallow-tailed Kite, Red-tailed Hawk, “Southeastern” American Kestrel, Northern Bobwhite, CommonGround-Dove, Great Horned Owl, Common Nighthawk, all woodpeckers including the Red-cockadedWoodpecker, Great Crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Blue Jay, Brown-headed Nuthatch, EasternBluebird, Yellow-throated Warbler, Pine Warbler, Common Yellowthroat, Summer Tanager, EasternTowhee, and Bachman's Sparrow. Pine Plantations are common throughout the state, especially in theNorthern Peninsula, and most are harvested every 20 or so years for the production of paper and relatedproducts. Some birds of pine flatwoods occur also in pine plantations, such as Downy Woodpecker,