ABA rare – Bananaquit – Florida

On March 14, Shane Runyon discovered an ABA Code 4 Bananaquit at North Shore Open Space Park in Miami Beach, Miami-Dade, Florida. This is the third Bananaquit found in south Florida this year, and the second in as many weeks.

North Shore Open Space Park is in Miami Beach, the barrier island east of the city of Miami, just north of North Beach. From I-95, take Exit 7 onto NW 79 Street. Go east over the intracoastal onto Miami Beach and continue to Collins Ave (AIA) and turn left (north). Park is on your right at 79 Street. The bird was feeding in the seagrapes east of the Collins and 79th Street entrance. Across from the seagrapes is a small gated community where there reported to be many flowering plants. You can park on the street.

Bananaquit is ubiquitous and highly variable species across most of the tropical Americas. There are a number of records from Florida, mostly in the southern third of the peninsula. The closest subspecies to the ABA Area is bahamensis of, appropriately, the Bahamas, which is a white-throated subspecies as opposed to others with are darker throats, such as the Puerto Rican portoicensis and Hispaniolan bananivora. This discovery of this bird on the eastern coast of Florida likely suggests Bahamanian origin.

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