Many people believe if you are at a Florida beach, any beach, your day is perfect. However, some beaches have been proven to have certain assets over others. Now we have 10 beaches that are the best for native Florida wildlife spotting.
Venice, Florida beaches are known to have more shark teeth than other beaches. Cayo Costa Island is known to be a very remote island in Florida. St. George Island Beach is arguably the prettiest beach in Florida.
In that vane, someone took the time to determine which beaches have more different species of wildlife than others. As many as 366 native Florida wildlife species were seen at one of our top 10 beaches.
10 Florida beaches were named Best Beaches in America for Wildlife Spotting. We think that achievement is a major feather in Florida’s beach cap!
10 Beaches Named Best for Native Florida Wildlife Spotting
The website Hawaiian Islands.com did a study of beaches that had the highest number of different species of wildlife to observe. The purpose of the study was to see which beaches in the country had a wide range of wildlife as an attraction for nature lovers.
Out of the top 20 beaches named, 10 Florida beaches are named best for wildlife spotting. Native Florida wildlife is a hobby for many people and a sought-after attraction for beachgoers.
The 10 Beaches Named Best for Native Florida Wildlife Spotting
The image below shows the top 20 beaches in the country for wildlife spotting. Below are the locations and names of the 10 Florida beaches named best for wildlife spotting.
St. Pete Beach – One of Florida’s best beaches on the west coast. Located near Tampa and is very popular with locals and tourists.
Canaveral National Seashore – This beach may be the most unusual. Not only is it on an island, it is a National Park on the east coast and people often come here to watch space exploration launches from Cape Canaveral. This park is well known for the many wildlife species here.
Pensacola Beach – In the far western panhandle of Florida, Pensacola Beach is in an area of Florida that has unspoiled beaches that run for miles.
Santa Rosa Beach – Santa Rosa Beach is in a row of stunning beaches in the panhandle with Grayton Beach on one side and Miramar Beach on the other. All of these are great beaches on 30A a Florida Scenic Highway.
Cocoa Beach – This beach on the east coast of Florida is known for surfing, great beach bars and long piers. Very popular beach.
Bahia Honda State Park Beach – Florida Travel Blog considers this state park one of the best in Florida. The beach, just a few miles north of Key West is where we took our children to learn about saltwater and the critters below the surface. This would be our choice of the 10 Florida beaches best for wildlife spotting.
Clearwater Beach is on everyone’s list of the top three beaches in Florida. Very busy beach because there are a lot of things to do. Home of the Clearwater Marine Science Center.
St. Andrews State Park – On the very east end of an island between Panama City and Panama City Beach. Very unique park surrounded by water with a great pier.
Fort Myers Beach – This is now a story of rebuilding. Fort Myers Baech was 90% destroyed when Hurricane Ian ravaged the island with wind and a storm surge that was relentless. It was once one of Florida’s most popular beaches and may be in a few years again.
Siesta Beach – This beach has been named Florida’s best beach a couple of times, but it is also known as the 11th-best beach in the world. Very large beach with an unusually big parking lot to hold the throngs of people who visit.
Reptiles on the Beaches of Florida
In the graphic below, note that the same website, HawaiianIslands.com, also determined the most likely chances of seeing reptiles on the beaches of America.
They named their 10 Best Beaches in the country for seeing reptiles and Florida had 8 of the 10 locations.
The other two locations were one in Alabama and the other in South Carolina.
The images above are courtesy of HawaiianIslands.com. The images above can be found at https://hawaiianislands.com/blog/the-best-beaches-in-america-for-wildlife-spotting/
Beaches Are Known for Reptiles, Birds and Marine Life
Each beach listed above is listed on the graphic including the number of species spotted at that particular beach.
Since each of the beaches has different locations, weather patterns and terrains, it makes sense that some species flourish under different conditions. We know the island locations have a greater chance of marine life and forested beaches have a better chance of bird sightings.
For the best chances of seeing a wide range of species, Florida Travel Blog would recommend Canaveral Seashore, Bahia Honda, and St. Andrews State Park. These are the state’s best beaches for spotting native Florida wildlife based on our experiences.
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This article originally appeared here and was republished with permission.
