Razorbills, Gulf Coast of FL on Sanibel & Captiva

Razorbill, 1st winter plumage

Razorbill, winter plumage, off Sanibel Island, FL,  today. There's a Razorbill invasion of Florida going on with potentially thousands there.

One of the Razorbills, off Captiva Island, FL,  today. 

Here's a video of the Razorbill

Here's a Razorbill in summer plumage, for comparison, I photographed at Machias Seal Island, ME.

Here's another photo of the Sanibel Razorbill.

It mostly just sat on the water, but did stretch its wings.

We immediately posted our sighting of the Razorbill at Gulfside City Park, on the SWFLBirdline listserve, and several other birders came right out to see it. Don showed them the Razorbill through our scope. 

The Razorbill on Sanibel was rather far off shore but viewable with binos, and nice views through a scope. This is the view through the camera I was while standing on shore. Orange arrow points to bird. I zoomed way, way out, 140x to take the photos with the Canon SX 40, so excuse the quality of the photos.

There is a Razorbill invasion of Florida happening and today we saw 3 Razorbills off of Sanibel and Captiva, on the Gulf Coast of Florida. One Razorbill was off Gulfside City Park on Sanibel Island and we saw that about 3 pm. We watched for about an hour then went to Captiva Island and located the other two which where near the breakwater at Blind Pass. One was resting on the water, the other was feeding by diving near a large group of Pelicans. No one knows why thousands of Razorbills are coming to FL, as they usually winter in the Northeast down to the Carolinas, rarely to GA. After searching all morning, with no sucess at Bunche Beach in Ft. Myers where one had been seen two days ago, we finally located these three. Sweet! If you are in Florida and see Razorbills, report them to your nearest birding listserve and also ebird.org.
Make sure and send your record to the Florida Ornithological Society by filling out their FOS Bird Records Species Documentation form located here.