About BBAII

From the Editor

Welcome to Florida’s second Atlas of the Breeding Birds of Florida! 

Florida’s birds are biological indicators of our state’s environmental integrity. The Florida Ornithological Society, a group of a few hundred professional and amateur ornithologists in the state’s current population of over 22 million, has been dedicated to collaboratively monitoring its birdlife since 1972. Over the past couple of years, I have been privileged, as the Florida Ornithological Society’s Special Publications editor, to lead the preparation of this second atlas of the breeding birds of Florida, the “BBA II”, that compares the status of the state’s bird community in the 1990s with its status 20 years later. 

I am grateful to have worked with many talented folks! FOS volunteers analyzed the atlas data and more than 70 authors contributed species accounts describing the observed distributional changes of birds breeding in Florida from the first to the second atlas, and more currently where information could contemporize the analyses, since preparing the BBA II was more involved and took more time than planned initially. 

As the editor, I strove to preserve each author’s thoughts and insights while ensuring some consistency between accounts. Each account is unique, but collectively they show the heartfelt commitment of the authors, whether professional ornithologists or citizen scientists, to embrace, study, and understand the distribution and abundance of Florida’s diverse birdlife. 

The Florida Ornithological Society was very fortunate to partner with the University of South Florida’s Libraries Special Collections Division to publish the atlas. Much work was expended developing an openly accessible interactive web portal and a static print version of BBA II available on Digital Commons at the University of South Florida. USF is also the repository for all BBA II data through the FOS Archives.

I hope you will enjoy the atlas and join FOS and the wider birding community in conserving and advocating for Florida’s charismatic birds! 

Ann B. Hodgson, PhD

Editor

Florida Ornithological Society’s Breeding Bird Atlas II

November 2023