Conservation: Pensacola

Port of Pensacola Remains Wildlife Friendly

The Port of Pensacola’s Warehouse #1 continues to be recognized as a Bird-Friendly Rooftop by Audubon Florida, in partnership with the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

More than 70 active Least Tern nests were documented on the warehouse roof during a recent site visit by Audubon of Florida’s Rooftop Nesting Bird Program.

A team of wildlife observers visited the Port of Pensacola and inspected the rooftop for evidence of bird nests, eggs and hatchlings. Warehouse #1’s gravel overlay provides artificial nesting habitat like the natural sand beach nesting habitat preferred by Least Terns and Black Skimmers. The warehouse rooftop was first officially recognized in 2015.
Least Terns are listed as a threatened species by both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. Black Skimmers are listed as a species of special concern in Florida by the Florida Game and Freshwater Fish Commission. Both species have adapted to nesting on gravel rooftops due to the loss and degradation of their natural colony sites.

Nesting on rooftops by the Least Terns was first reported in Pensacola, and has now become widespread throughout the state of Florida. By 1975, 21 percent of Least Terns colonies along Florida's Atlantic coast occurred on roofs.