Wakodahatchee Wetlands

Palm Beach County · South Florida & the Keys

Fifty acres of working water infrastructure that became one of Florida's finest birding boardwalks, free to enter, with more than 178 species recorded.

ABOUT THIS PLACE

Wakodahatchee opened in 1996 on 50 acres of Palm Beach County water utility land, and it is still a working piece of that system rather than a park: the Southern Region Water Reclamation Facility releases highly treated reclaimed water into the wetlands every day, and the wetlands filter it back down into the water table. A three-quarter-mile boardwalk crosses between open ponds and islands that were planted with shrubs and snags specifically to encourage nesting and roosting, with interpretive signage and gazebos along the way. More than 178 bird species have been recorded here, alongside alligators, turtles, rabbits, fish and frogs, and the site forms part of the southern section of the Great Florida Birding Trail. Purple martins migrate from South America each winter to nest in gourd-shaped houses put up for them with Audubon Everglades volunteers, copied from the hollowed gourds that native Floridians used. The boardwalk is open from sunrise to sunset and there is no charge, and the nesting season from winter into spring is when the rookery islands are busiest and the photographers are out in numbers

GETTING THERE

Get Directions ↗Official place website ↗

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