Alafia Bank Bird Sanctuary — Tampa, Florida

The Richard T. Paul Alafia Bank Bird Sanctuary is a pair of small man-made islands in Hillsborough Bay, the arm of Tampa Bay that reaches up to downtown Tampa. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission designates the site as the Alafia Banks Critical Wildlife Area: 92 acres in Hillsborough County, made up of two islands known locally as Bird Island and Sunken Island and located at the mouth of the Alafia River. FWC lists its focal species as herons, egrets, ibis, roseate spoonbill, brown pelican and American oystercatcher.

No one lands there. Both islands and the surrounding water buffer are closed to public access year-round, and FWC reports that in-water markers around the Alafia Banks were paid for by the Fish and Wildlife Foundation of Florida through the Conserve Wildlife Tag grant program. The islands are owned by Port Tampa Bay and The Mosaic Company and leased to Audubon Florida, whose Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries staff have managed Alafia Bank as a nesting island since the 1930s.

The islands are a by-product of shipping. According to Bay Soundings, a journal covering Tampa Bay and its watershed, Bird Island to the east and Sunken Island to the west were formed in the late 1920s from spoil material created when a channel was dredged to connect the Alafia River to the main shipping channel in Hillsborough Bay. Gulls, terns and skimmers moved onto the bare sand almost at once.

As shrubs and trees took hold, a second wave arrived. Herons, egrets, ibis and pelicans shifted to Alafia Bank from their historic nesting site at Green Key. In 1977 a 12-acre addition called the Alafia Extension was built on the west end of Sunken Island from another dredging project; first planted with smooth cordgrass, it has grown into mangrove forest with tidal pools, mud flats, small creeks and salt barrens.

The sanctuary carries the name of conservationist Rich Paul, who persuaded a phosphate company to lease the two Hillsborough Bay spoil islands to Audubon for $1 a year. Bay Soundings reported that the sanctuary was renamed for him in December 2005, at a ceremony in Riverview that also opened a boardwalk and dedicated the Mosaic Coastal Education Center. That boardwalk runs 610 feet and ends on the shoreline about 2,000 feet from the islands, close enough to view the Alafia Bank colony through binoculars.

The colony is measured in thousands. Bay Soundings reported in 2006 that up to 18,000 pairs of 16 to 20 species of birds nest on the islands, that FWC had listed Alafia Bank as the most important colony in the state for its size, longevity and species diversity, and that the sanctuary hosts the largest roseate spoonbill nesting colony in Florida along with a wintering flock of white pelicans.

Spoonbills are the colony's signature species. In a June 2022 Audubon Florida survey, a coastal biologist counted nearly 100 Roseate Spoonbill chicks at Alafia Bank, the young of approximately 50 to 75 pairs, which Audubon described as an average success year for the site, though the birds had nested unusually late. The same survey found Reddish Egret chicks and young American Oystercatchers. FWC lists roseate spoonbills as Threatened, and Audubon notes that successful breeding in the Tampa Bay region matters for the species because sea level rise has hampered nesting in Florida Bay.

Birds also move between nearby islands. In 2021, Audubon reported, a majority of the White Ibis, along with Little Blue Herons, Snowy Egrets, Tricolored Herons and a couple of pairs of Reddish Egrets, nested on Fantasy Island instead, a Port Tampa Bay public use area normally open to boaters. Audubon, Port Tampa Bay and FWC posted Fantasy Island as a nesting area and roped off the colony until the season ended.

In 2004 the Florida Coastal Islands Sanctuaries team in Tampa Bay, working with the research director of Audubon's Everglades Science Center, weighed and measured a Roseate Spoonbill chick and fitted it with a red leg band reading 43. Audubon Florida reported in March 2020 that 16 years later, that very same spoonbill was spotted where it originally hatched: Alafia Bank Bird Sanctuary. Audubon called Spoonbill 43 the second oldest spoonbill ever recorded.

The Alafia Bank bird is part of a much larger record. Audubon states that more than 3,000 spoonbills have been banded in the long-term study, generating about 1,600 reported resightings, and that the research shows spoonbill nests shifting northward, away from habitat loss in the Florida Keys and poorly timed water releases in the Everglades. Audubon also treats the spoonbill as a critical indicator of climate change, since the birds cannot survive if water levels become too high to forage, which gives the Hillsborough Bay colony added weight as a reference point for how Florida spoonbills respond to rising water around Tampa Bay.

Port Tampa Bay is a central partner. In its 2017 nesting season notice, the port listed the official bird nesting season as April 1 through August 31 and noted that it owns two dredge disposal islands in Hillsborough Bay, islands 2D and 3D, recognized together with the Alafia Bank sanctuary by BirdLife International and the National Audubon Society for global significance. FWC approved a modified Critical Wildlife Area designation in November 2016 that added Sunken Island, with a 100-foot protection buffer and year-round no entry.

The port's notice also states that birds nesting on the Alafia Bank and the port islands are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 and the Florida Threatened and Endangered Species Act of 1977, and asks boaters in Tampa Bay to observe the no trespassing designations so chicks can be raised without disturbance.

Habitat work continues. Audubon reported in 2022 that efforts to reduce erosion and restore native plants at Alafia Bank had created more nesting habitat. On February 17, 2026, Port Tampa Bay announced a completed project at the Richard T. Paul Alafia Banks Sanctuary that stabilized island features, restored nesting surfaces and strengthened resilience to erosion, storms and sea-level rise. The port reported that the work benefited 17 species of nesting waterbirds, including five state-threatened species, on islands it describes as isolated, predator-resistant nesting sites in Hillsborough Bay.