Land & Conservation

Stunning Florida Shorebirds

Photographer Jim Miller captures striking images of shorebirds throughout Florida in his new book Art of Birds

Jim Miller is lucky: Just a few hours in the car will take him from his home in Tallahassee to some of the best birding spots on the planet. “Photographers and bird watchers come from all over the world to see the range and quantity of Florida birds,” he says. And for the last two decades, Miller has been among them, staking out quiet spots along the coast, armed with binoculars, camera, and tripod. His new book, The Art of Birds, showcases more than one hundred images taken throughout the Sunshine State, alongside excerpts pulled from the writing of renowned ornithologists including John James Audubon and Arthur Cleveland Bent. Miller snapped portrait-style close-ups of pelicans, gulls, and osprey, along with action shots such as a white ibis about to devour a crab and two great egrets chasing one another down the beach at Fort De Soto County Park. “Perhaps the most surprising is the royal tern shaking after a bath—it’s essentially flying upside down,” Miller says. “It took a 1/4000th of a second exposure to capture that.” Sure, Miller is delighted when he gets the perfect shot, but most of the time, he’s just grateful to spend time in nature. “It’s a fantastic excuse to be outdoors,” he says. “I can sit in one place for hours and think about what the land used to be, who lived here, what the coastline will someday be.”

By Caroline Sanders Clements

March 24, 2021

Anhinga
Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

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Anhinga

Anhinga Trail, Everglades National Park, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Brown Pelican
Apalachicola, Florida

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Brown Pelican

Apalachicola, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Glossy Ibis
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Wakulla County, Florida

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Glossy Ibis

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Wakulla County, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Limpkin
Tallahassee, Florida

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Limpkin

Tallahassee, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Roseate Spoonbill
St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St. Augustine, Florida

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Roseate Spoonbill

St. Augustine Alligator Farm, St. Augustine, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Great Egrets
Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

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Great Egrets

Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Royal Tern
Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

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Royal Tern

Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Little Blue Heron
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

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Little Blue Heron

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

White Ibis
Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

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White Ibis

Fort De Soto County Park, Tierra Verde, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Great Egrets
St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Panacea, Florida

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Great Egrets

St. Marks National Wildlife Refuge, Panacea, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Sandhill Crane
East Lake Tohopekaliga, Kissimmee, Florida

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Sandhill Crane

East Lake Tohopekaliga, Kissimmee, Florida

Photo: Photos by Jim Miller, from The Art of Birds: Grace and Motion in the Wild. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, March 2021. Reprinted with permission of the University Press of Florida.

Caroline Sanders Clements is the senior editor at Garden & Gun and oversees the magazine’s annual Made in the South Awards. Since joining G&G’s editorial team in 2017, the Athens, Georgia, native has written and edited stories about artists, architects, historians, musicians, tomato farmers, James Beard Award winners, and one mixed martial artist. She lives in North Charleston, South Carolina, with her husband, Sam, and dog, Bucket.

A cover with Nate Bargatze

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