The Everglades, Florida

Its fame as North America's window to the tropics is almost a cliche.

The names Anhinga Trail, Mrazek Pond and Snake Bight Trail — "must-see" locations on the Everglades birding loop — are etched in every birder's mind. Though shaken by drought and diminished by competing land-use problems, the Everglades remains an engrossing, enriching environment — and one that holds special treasures for visiting birders.

Pick up any birding magazine. Look at the photos of anhingas, purple galinules and assorted other water birds. Chances are the shots were taken on the Anhinga Trail. Dare the walk down Snake (a.k.a. Mosquito) Bight. Listen for the sly taunt of mangrove cuckoos and the eruption of a white-crowned pigeon as it wings from the gumbo limbo trees overhead. It's a tropical experience almost (but not quite) beyond the latitude of the place.

At the end of the road, where the flats vibrate with shorebirds, scan the heron-pocked horizon for the phantom flock of flamingoes. Even if flamingoes are elusive, youll certainly find something to compensate for the insects and the heat. The cumulative bird list contains more than 350 species — but in a place as magical as the Everglades, possibilities are boundless.

Birds you might see

• Wood stork
• Mottled duck
• Red-breasted merganser
• Swallow-tailed kite
• Roseate spoonbill
• Anhinga
• Purple gallinule
• Red-shouldered hawk
• Snail kite
• Seaside sparrow

Top 10 Birding Spots was compiled by Pete Dunne who is the director of the New Jersey Audubon Society's Cape May Bird Observatory and author of "Tales of a Low Rent Birder," "Feather Quest" and "Before the Echo."

Explore our top 10 birding hotspots:

• Aleutian Islands, Alaska
• Cape May, New Jersey
• The Everglades, Florida
• Gulf Coast, Texas to Florida
• Monterey Bay, California
• Newburyport, Massachusetts
• Pawnee Grasslands, Colorado
• Point Pelee, Ontario
• The Rio Grande Valley, Texas
• Southeast Arizona

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Photos: Stork, Everglades National Park, Florida. Photo © Nicholas Money, money.nicholas@gmail.com; Swallow-tailed kite. Photo © Arthur Morris/BIRDS AS ART.