Birdwatching in big business in Florida

If you live in Florida long enough you get used to seeing birds everywhere and all the time, but it turns out there are people willing to pay big money to see them. According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission bird watchers and wildlife viewers spend $3.1 billion dollars per year in Florida. They support nearly 35,000 jobs. In fact more people travel to Florida to see wildlife than to any other state in the US. More than half the 800 bird species in the US make their way to Florida, at least sometime during the year. Birders have spotted 504 bird species in Florida including 135 exotic species they could never hope to see without traveling to faraway countries.