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

View as Slideshow

1 of 11

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.

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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.

3 of 11

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.

4 of 11

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.

5 of 11

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.

6 of 11

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.

7 of 11

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.

8 of 11

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.

9 of 11

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.

10 of 11

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.

11 of 11

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.

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