“Saving Florida’s Rarest Bird” as featured in BirdWatching Magazine
By Justin Grubb
Kissammee, FLorida
‘Instead of finding handfuls of nests in a season, as was the case a few years ago, we are now able to find more than 40 nests in a season. The passion behind everyone involved in this recovery effort has been mind-blowing.’
It is early morning in one of the largest tracts of Florida dry prairie. A chorus of insects fills the dark chilled air, and heavy dew soaks through my pants as I carefully navigate thick underbrush. I make slow and calculated movements. After nearly an hour of hiking through the ecosystem, Rebecca Schneider, sparrow biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), abruptly tells me to stop in my tracks. “We are here,” she whispers, glancing down at her GPS. I peer out into the golden prairie, seeing only the gentle waving of grass, welcoming the sunrise.
We are on the search for one of the rarest birds in the world — the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. It’s an endangered subspecies of the widespread Grasshopper Sparrow found only in central Florida’s dry prairies and pastures.
The bird is cryptic, preferring to hop along the ground and hide among dense prairie grasses. Delicate mottled rusty feathers leading to a small yellow brow atop their head make the birds nearly invisible against the backdrop of the wild prairie plants. Experts say that fewer than 30 breeding pairs are left in the wild, all of which live just 50 miles south of Orlando. With such low numbers for the birds, conservationists are stepping in to save Florida’s sparrow.
While watching tufts of tall grasses blow delicately in the wind through my camera’s viewfinder, I hear a distinct tick tick pzzzzzz breaking the soft chorus of crickets. Schneider’s eyes light up. “That’s it!” she exclaims as a small bird rises from the ground and perches on a palm leaf to announce his presence. My heart pounding, I scramble to zoom in on the bird and set my focus. The bird’s soft calling continues — strikingly resembling the noise of a grasshopper — making the sparrow well deserving of its name. This is the behavior of a paired male as he shifts his song to include a cluster of warbling notes, holding on to what territory remains in his shrinking ecosystem.
A DOWNWARD DECLINE
The Florida Grasshopper Sparrow has evolved with the Florida dry prairie and plays a central role in the food web by eating a myriad of insects while also serving as an important food source for predators. “This species represents an important indicator of the health of the habitat, and if it is at risk of extinction, there are likely greater threats to the ecosystem at large that need to be resolved,” says Erin Ragheb, a former assistant research scientist with FWC.
Florida dry prairie was once prevalent across peninsular Florida but has experienced an 85 percent reduction due to expanding human population and agriculture. For decades, the birds were forced to make use of what habitat remained. Less quality habitat means they now suffer from extremely high rates of nest predation from mammals, reptiles, and invasive fire ants.
Wildfire also plays a critical role in the sparrow’s life cycle, and historic suppression of fire has led to drastic changes in its ecosystem. Furthermore, climate change continues to be a looming threat as more frequent and severe tropical storms and hurricanes bring increased rainfall, which often floods ground nests, carrying away eggs or drowning newly hatched birds. “Rainfall could result in greater chances for nest failure,” says Ken Warren of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, “and could shorten the nesting season by prolonging the amount of time that the nesting habitat is flooded.”
As if the odds weren’t already stacked against the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow, its rapid decline also suggests that an unidentified disease could have been wreaking havoc in the population for decades.
BUMPS AND BRUISES
As the population plummeted, the need to save the bird and protect its ecosystem sparked a cutting-edge conservation initiative in 2012, bringing together leading institutions from around the state. Through a multi-pronged effort, the plan was for conservation organizations to develop breeding populations in managed care for release back into the wild, all the while restoring Florida’s dry prairie and reducing other ongoing threats to the species.
In 2015, wild birds were brought into managed care, and the following spring, the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation in Palm Beach County was home to the first clutch ever hatched in captivity. “The babies were perfect, they fledged on cue and looked great. There was real reason for optimism,” says Paul Reillo, the foundation’s president and the director and research professor at Florida International University’s Tropical Conservation Institute. “Then, within 40 to 50 days, the birds just fell over dead.” Similar reports came in from White Oak Conservation in Nassau County, which also held breeding pairs.
An intense effort got underway to identify the root cause of the mysterious deaths. After months of study and many blood smears, necropsies, and DNA tests, the University of Georgia described a new species of coccidia — a gut parasite that can also invade blood-rich tissues and organs — as the leading culprit of mortality. The parasite was likely brought into captivity from the wild-caught sparrows that jump-started the breeding program.
In response, leaders of the recovery project hosted a disease risk assessment workshop that culminated in the development of the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Health Team. The team’s experts didn’t reach an overall consensus on the risks of disease. Reillo and others said the risks were too significant to release more birds until further research was conducted, but the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and FWC disagreed, saying the risk of releasing captive-reared sparrows to the wild population was acceptably low. This was based on the recommendations from a disease-risk analysis workshop, literature review, and consultation with scientists. Confirmation that the pathogens also occurred in the wild was particularly informative to the decision. New husbandry, nutrition, and medication protocols were established, as well as pre-release screening protocols.
Due to disagreements over the recovery strategy, in 2019, FWS ended the captive-breeding efforts at the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation.
LAYING THE GROUNDWORK
Currently, sparrows are located at White Oak Conservation; Avian Preservation and Education Conservancy; Welaka Fish Hatchery; Santa Fe College Teaching Zoo; and Brevard Zoo. White Oak has the largest population of captive sparrows — 77 birds in massive netted enclosures meant to replicate their natural habitat and to spread out individuals to avoid future outbreaks of disease.
Giving them the freedom to forage for food and practice their survival strategies is crucial for when facilities release the birds back into the wild. Andrew Schumann, animal collections manager at White Oak Conservation, and his team work around the clock to encourage sparrows to produce lots of hatchlings.
In the field, federal and state agencies work together to ensure that Florida’s dry prairie habitat can accommodate more sparrows. A strict one- to two-year prescribed burning cycle has been established, and roller chopping has been implemented in some sections of the prairie to discourage the overgrowth of saw palmetto, a lush green fan-like plant that can take over sparrow habitat. In addition, FWC biologists spend hours during the day setting up fencing around known sparrow nests to protect them from predation. In some cases, scientists install field cameras so they can monitor the progression of nests. Following the agency's five-year vision for the birds, biologists are also conducting research to reverse the sparrows’ decline.
In areas where private ranchland borders the prairie, federal agencies work closely with landowners. “The [U.S. Fish and Wildlife] Service receives a lot of support from private ranches,” says Ashleigh Blackford, supervisory biologist for Florida Grasshopper Sparrow Recovery Effort with FWS. “This species is unique, in some respects, because it has been able to survive on both protected and working land. Some ranchers are interested in having native species on their land.”
Cattle rancher David “Lefty” Durando, whose ranch borders one of the last remaining sparrow habitats, wants to leave his land better than he found it so his grandkids can hear the sparrows’ soft buzz. Durando believes that cattle ranching and sparrow conservation can work together. “It was here before us,” he says, “It has just as much right to be there as I do. Why should it be killed off?”
A SPARROW’S FUTURE
Last year, 2019, was a big one for the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. It represents the first time the subspecies has ever been released back into the wild. Between May 2019 and February 2020, more than 130 recently hatched sparrows were set free, 15 of which were hatched in 2018. The birds were introduced by a technique called “delayed release,” which allows them to acclimate briefly to their new habitat.
Each individual spent two nights in a giant aviary built within the Florida dry prairie. On the morning of their last day, they ate a continental breakfast right before the doors opened, allowing the birds to leave on their own. Some birds took off with another parting gift, a small tracker affixed to their backs that will aid researchers in following the birds’ dispersal and survival. Otherwise, biologists must wait for a paired male to come out and sing. Then they identify permanent color bands on the bird’s leg, giving researchers valuable information such as where the bird was born and how old it is.
“The overarching mantra is to minimize stress and maximize survivorship and success of the birds in the wild,” says Mary Peterson, the lead biologist on the project for FWS.
This year, researchers express optimism about the sparrow’s recovery.
“The preliminary results of the first releases are coming back, and even though there is little data, the numbers look promising,” says Blackford. So far, 77 males have been detected near sites currently being monitored, up 10 from last year. There are now at least 30 confirmed pairs. Biologists expect the numbers to grow as monitoring efforts continue through the season. As of June 2020, more than a quarter of the birds released in 2019 have been re-sighted — far exceeding the program’s expectations.
Biologists anticipate that many of the individuals released will be pairing up and beginning to breed over the course of the summer. Peterson says, “It is crazy how much we have learned about the birds and how much the program has evolved in the recovery of the bird. Biologists are beginning to truly understand the bird’s behavior, and, as a result, instead of finding handfuls of nests in a season, as was the case a few years ago, we are now able to find more than 40 nests in a season. The passion behind everyone involved in this recovery effort has been mind-blowing.”
She adds that, between the breeding facilities, 100 to 200 more birds can be released this year, and even more birds should be ready for release next year.
Reillo, from the Rare Species Conservatory Foundation, cautions against celebrating too quickly, as many variables are not well understood about the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow. “These birds live incredibly complex little lives,” he says.
Looking forward, Schumann, from White Oak Conservation, believes much needs to be learned from the recovery effort. “If we bring back the Florida Grasshopper Sparrow from the edge of extinction,” he says, “it would be a great model for other habitat specialist songbirds going extinct as well.”