Deforestation, development, and wetland destruction are forcing Florida's birds and animals out of their homes. This page highlights a few of the species struggling to survive as their habitats are cleared for roads, housing, and construction.
The great blue heron relies on healthy wetlands, shallow marshes, and quiet mangrove edges to hunt. As development fills in wetlands for housing and commercial construction, these birds lose the calm, open water they depend on. Noise, pollution, and habitat fragmentation force herons to move farther and farther to find safe feeding grounds, making survival harder every year.
Common gallinules thrive in dense marshes with floating vegetation, cattails, and lily pads. When wetlands are drained or converted into retention ponds with steep, artificial edges, the gallinule’s nesting areas disappear. Without the thick plant cover that protects their chicks from predators, their populations drop quickly in developed areas.
Red-bellied woodpeckers need mature trees for nesting, feeding, and drumming. Deforestation and rapid construction remove the old pines and oaks they rely on, leaving fewer places to excavate nest cavities. When forests are replaced with neighborhoods and parking lots, woodpeckers are forced into smaller patches of trees, often competing with invasive species for dwindling space.
White ibises depend on soft, wet soil where they can probe for insects, crustaceans, and small aquatic animals. As wetlands are paved over, drained, or polluted, ibises are pushed into suburban lawns, canals, and parking lot puddles in search of food. Their shift into human spaces is a direct sign of vanishing wetlands and the shrinking ecosystems they once relied on.
These owls nest in underground burrows. Construction and mowing equipment collapse their homes, and clearing land removes the open fields they need.
The Florida panther loses thousands of acres of territory each year to roads and housing. Fragmented forests make hunting and breeding nearly impossible.
Gopher tortoises are displaced when forests are bulldozed for development. Their burrows shelter many other species, so losing them affects entire ecosystems.
When coastal forests and wetlands are removed, pollution increases and warm-water habitats shrink, putting manatees at greater risk.