Standing about two feet high, the Limpkin, makes his home in wooded swamps and marshes from the Okefenokee Swamp in George to the Florida Everglades and even into South America. Because it sounds like a human crying, it is sometimes called the “crying bird.” It is mostly nocturnal, and is not a commonly seen bird. I saw the fellow on the left about an hour before sunset wading in the marshes at Bourlay Preserve in Lake County, Florida. With the sun on his grayish-brown feathers streaked with white spots, he was beautiful.

The bird on the right was spotted on the shores of Lake Harris in Lake County, Florida, just after sunrise.