Ultimate Guide to Birding at Dry Tortugas National Park

Dry Tortugas is one of the least-visited National Parks in the United States.

The Dry Tortugas

The Dry Tortugas are part of the Florida Keys reef system, a chain of seven small islands, accessible only via sea or air.

Loggerhead Key is the largest of the coral islands that make up the Dry Tortugas. It has the most Florida limestone of the seven keys and is the highest above sea level of the group, which is why the Dry Tortugas Lighthouse was built here.

Garden Key is the second largest of the islands and is home to Fort Jefferson, now owned by the National Park Service.  This is the area known as Dry Tortugas National Park.

A sandbar connects the Garden Key to the Bush Key during lower tides. Unless it’s nesting season for Sooty Terns and Brown Noddys (usually May through September), you can walk between them easily.

Of the four other Keys comprising the Dry Tortugas (Long, Middle, East, and Hospital), Hospital Key is the most interesting for birders. The island once housed a wooden hospital where the sick and injured from Fort Jefferson were treated. There is no building or vegetation on Hospital Key now. The building and island have been reduced to a sandbar that disappears below the waters for months. When it is visible, the only inhabitants are birds.

Why put a strategic fort on this little island?

The first thing you’ll notice about Garden Key is a stone octagon ring that occupies most of the key. This is Fort Jefferson, started in 1846 and never really finished, and is noted as being the place where Dr. Samuel Mudd, one of the Lincoln Assassination conspirators, served his life sentence.

Getting There

Garden Key is the starting point of the Great Florida Birding Trail, sitting 70 miles west of Key West. There are two main ways to get there – by Seaplane and Ferry. Going by air is approximately $450 for adults and $360 for each child. The ferry is a $220 round trip for adults and includes breakfast, lunch, and a tour of historic Fort Jefferson (there are discounts for seniors, military, and National Park Pass holders).

It takes about 3 hours to go from Key West to Garden Key, depending on weather and sea conditions, and the same to return. You spend 4 hours on the island, so it’s a very long day. You get breakfast (a bagel and beverage of choice) and a hero sandwich with cookies, chips, and a drink for lunch.

If you’re a birder, it is worth it. This is a one-time trip to see birds you may not find anywhere in the continental United States.

For those who don’t bird, you can picnic, swim, and snorkel in the beautiful turquoise waters, or camp overnight on the island. If you bird, you will walk in, around, and through the fort searching for nesting colonies of Sooty Terns, Black and Brown Noddies, and gaze up at Magnificent Frigatebirds.

Some things to note about the ferry

The staff is fantastic! They are accommodating, and if you let the tour guide know that you’re looking for birds (if you’re not wearing all your birding gear, lol), they will try to make a pass as close to Hospital Key as possible. 

You want to be on the open deck, either at the bow or the stern (but know that either can close in rough seas and winds). The caveat here is to wear rain gear or something that dries easily – everything you own will be soaking wet with salt spray. If you ever wanted to go to a salt spa – the open deck is the place for you! That’s not sand on your face and clothes – it’s dried salt.  

It can get rough and rocky, so I would advise Dramamine or Ginger in any form (Crystallized Ginger, GinGins candies, Ginger ale, etc.) if you don’t travel well on the waves. (If you forgot yours, don’t worry, they sell it on the dock before the boat sails).

Hospital Key

The islands you’ll pass along the way are the Marquesas. Hospital Key is one of these. Once, a wooden building stood on it, but now it’s just a spit of sand with birds.

A spotting scope is great for Hospital Key, but if you have a camera with a good distance lens, just keep shooting as the boat passes by and view the pics later on a computer, where you can enhance them. Masked and Brown Boobies nest on the Key, and you never know what else is sitting on the sand.

For those not birdwatching, the boat sets up a snorkeling shack with all the equipment you’ll need. There are picnic tables all around the beach area. Since there is a limit to how many people are on the boat for the day, there seem to be enough places to sit (and the ship is open most of the time if you don’t like sitting in the sun for four hours). Swimming is also a good option – the water was warm and beautifully clear – and we could see the bonefish swimming between our legs as we waded along the shore.

But if you’re there to see birds…

When you pull into the dock, there is a set of pilings to your left that was once a coal dock. Another coal dock sits across the island, a short distance from the end of the moat (yes, the fort has a moat with crystal-clear water in it). Check the pylons for gulls, terns, pelicans, Noddies, and other sea birds. The Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies nest in the bushes and reeds in good numbers, so seeing them is pretty much guaranteed. While the shoreline will turn up Laughing Gulls, Royal, Sandwich (ID hint – the Sandwich Tern has a black bill with a yellow tip, so the Sandwich has mustard on the end), and SootyTerns, and the two Noddy species, don’t forget to scan the water’s edge for other shorebirds like RuddyTurnstones and Black-bellied Plovers.

And don’t forget to look up!

You’ll probably notice large birds with thin, long wings soaring around Garden and Bush Keys. These are Magnificent Frigatebirds, and they are always hanging over the fort. Magnificent Frigatebirds are always watching to steal food from the birds beneath them. Frigatebirds do not dive into the water to get their meals – they attack other seabirds and eat their dinner on the wing. Aside from nesting, Magnificent Frigatebirds spend all their lives in the air and are seldom found in or on the water.

Dock Area

When you pull into the dock, there is a set of pilings to your left that was once a coal dock. Another coal dock sits across the island, a short distance from the end of the moat (yes, the fort has a moat with crystal-clear water in it). Check the pylons for gulls, terns, pelicans, Noddies, and other sea birds. 

The Sooty Terns and Brown Noddies nest in the bushes and reeds in good numbers, so seeing them is pretty much guaranteed. While the shoreline will turn up Laughing Gulls, Royal, Sandwich (ID hint – the Sandwich Tern has a black bill with a yellow tip, so the Sandwich has mustard on the end), and Sooty Terns, and the two Noddy species, don’t forget to scan the water’s edge for other shorebirds like Ruddy Turnstones and Black-bellied Plovers. 

Above you, those Magnificent Frigatebirds are always watching to steal food from the birds beneath them. Frigatebirds do not dive into the water to get their meals – they attack other seabirds and eat their dinner on the wing. Aside from nesting, Magnificent Frigatebirds spend all their lives in the air and are never found in or on the water.

Fort Jefferson

When you enter Fort Jefferson, it’s dark and much cooler than the rest of the island. The stone fort was built in the 1880s and is not completely intact, but the Park Service has preserved it well. If you walk through the back section, you enter a courtyard with benches and trees. You can explore everywhere except where marked, but remember to be back at the ferry by 1430 or you’re spending the night on Garden Key without a sleeping bag.

This enclosed area is a very different habitat from the one at the fort’s front door. Trees and flowers mean different birds. Here you’ll find warblers and other passerines migrating up from or down to the Caribbean or South America, depending on the season you visit. Our visit had Gray Kingbirds, 6 warbler species, 4 herons, 4 raptors, and the birds already mentioned (see my location list at the end of this article).

The timing of your visit determines what you may see, so going in May could bring you sightings of Antillean Nighthawk, Bahama Mockingbird, and more warblers and passerines than going in March or April. Fall migration brings in different birds. Be aware that some areas may be closed during the breeding season for certain birds – the park website will keep you updated on the closures.

There is a small visitor’s center where you can see a cannon, get your National Park Passport stamped, and purchase postcards, magnets, and other Dry Tortugas mementos. Lunch is given out back on the ferry, which you can eat anywhere on the island, but this is a carry-in – carry-out park so please take your garbage with you to dispose of on the boat.

If all that sea and sun hasn’t made you tired, you can bird your way back to Key West (you get a closer look at Hospital Key on the way back depending upon sea and weather conditions) and never know what will fly by. 

You’ll be back in Key West in time for dinner.

Seen on Hospital Key 

Laughing Gull, White Ibis, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Northern Gannet, Brown Booby, Masked Booby, Double-crested Cormorant, and Brown Pelican 

Seen on Garden Key

Black-bellied Plover, Ruddy Turnstone Willet, Laughing Gull, Brown Noddy, Black Noddy, Sooty Tern, Sandwich Tern, Royal Tern, Magnificent Frigatebird, Brown Booby, and Brown Pelican

Seen in the courtyard

Yellow-crowned Night Heron, Western Cattle Egret, Sharp-shinned Hawk, White Ibis, American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, Gray Kingbird, Barn Swallow, Tennessee Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Northern Parula, Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler, and Prairie Warbler