Volunteers Built Tavernier's Bird Sanctuary Boardwalk. Tourism Money Is Paying to Replace It.

Four years ago Erin Allison was living in a remote part of Costa Rica. In the corner of a journal page she wrote, "Dreaming of taking over the Wild Bird Center." She told the story of that note on Sept. 17 to a crowd at the Laura Quinn Wild Bird Sanctuary in Tavernier, as Keys Weekly reported. By then she had been the Florida Keys Wild Bird Center's executive director since 2023. The crowd had come for a groundbreaking.

When she started looking at the center's future, she told the crowd, "I kept coming back to this boardwalk."

The boardwalk is the sanctuary for most people who stop at MM 93.6. It runs past the enclosures and out to the bay. Volunteers built it, the public walks it for free, and it is now being rebuilt for $600,000. All of that money comes from visitors.

Built by Volunteers in the 1990s

Volunteers built the original boardwalk in the 1990s. Since then it has taken hurricanes, tropical storms and king tides. According to Keys Weekly, hundreds of thousands of visitors have walked it over the decades. It is the path through a sanctuary that is permanent home to more than 40 nonreleasable birds, from owls and hawks to songbirds and pelicans.

The center itself is older than the boardwalk. The Florida Keys Wild Bird Center has been protecting Keys birds since 1988. It grew out of the work of founder Laura Quinn, a former statistician and math teacher who became known as the "Bird Lady" for rescuing and rehabilitating wild birds. At the groundbreaking, Islamorada Mayor Don Horton told staff and board members that Quinn would be "very proud of the work you have done."

The new structure will be called the "Birdwalk." Board president Dennis Caltagirone said the name was always the right one:

"You're not walking through the beach. It should be a birdwalk because you're walking among the birds."

His comments appeared in the same Keys Weekly groundbreaking story.

Who Is Paying for the Birdwalk

The Monroe County Tourist Development Council is funding all $600,000 of the project, and Island Villa Construction is building it. A path first built by volunteers is being replaced with money that tourism brings into the Keys.

The money came faster than Allison expected. "I honestly thought it might take five years before we could make it happen," she said at the ceremony. "There were so many other needs and priorities that had to come first." It took three.

So the walk is paid for. The Birdwalk will replace the boards and the route. It does not replace the people who feed, treat, transport and care for the birds along it. That part of the center still runs on volunteers and donations, which is why the rest of this post covers them.

Where Construction Stands

At the September groundbreaking, Allison said the project was still waiting on a Monroe County permit. She expected work to start within the following month and take about six months. Counting six months forward from a fall start would put completion around spring 2027, if the schedule holds.

The center's sanctuary page still lists regular hours and says nothing about access during construction. If you're planning a sunset walk this winter, or bringing guests, call ahead and ask which sections are open.

Owl-O-Ween Is Friday, Oct. 30

The sanctuary's Halloween night is this Friday, Oct. 30, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Laura Quinn sanctuary. Keys Weekly's Upper Keys Halloween roundup says the night will have games and new activities for families. It will also have the event's first-ever costume contest, starting at 6 p.m.

Prizes go to:

1. Best costume, ages 0 to 4
2. Best costume, ages 5 to 10
3. Best costume, ages 11 and older
4. Best Group Costume
5. Best Nature-Inspired
6. Spookiest

Admission is free, and donations go toward the center's care of injured birds. Owl-O-Ween comes the night before the sixth annual Underwater Critter Costume Party at Florida Keys Brewing Co. on Saturday, Oct. 31, from 6 to 9 p.m. That party is also free, and its proceeds support coral reefs.

Nature-Inspired is the one category that fits the setting. A child dressed as a pelican or a barn owl will be standing a few yards from the real thing.

What the Walk Covers Today

The center describes the sanctuary walk as a self-guided boardwalk tour past bird enclosures and educational signs. It ends at the bay, which the center points to as a sunset-viewing spot. The center's homepage also lists a pelican feeding as part of a visit but gives no set time for it.

The center runs two locations about a mile and a half apart on the Overseas Highway.

You don't need an appointment to walk the sanctuary on your own. Guided sanctuary tours cost $20 per person and run Monday through Friday, booked at least three days ahead. Florida Keys locals get 10% off guided tours with proof of address. That makes a guided tour an easy plan for out-of-town guests.

Why the Birds Are There

The birds along the boardwalk are the ones that could not go back to the wild. They are a small share of what the center handles. The center takes in roughly 1,000 sick or injured birds a year, and most of that work happens at the hospital, out of public view. The center keeps a 24/7 Birdgency hotline for anyone who finds a hurt bird.

The timing of the rebuild lines up with the migration calendar. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes September and October as peak southbound migration in the Keys. That brings through songbirds, shorebirds, hawks, eagles, ospreys and falcons, and November and December bring winter residents and late migrants.

Recent rescues show what that season looks like at the hospital. Late in 2024, two broad-winged hawks were brought in dehydrated and possibly hit by vehicles. Keys Weekly reported in February 2025 that both were rehabilitated and joined a migration-tracking study. In another case that Keys Weekly covered in January 2025, a great white heron was found floating in an Islamorada canal in late November, badly underweight and with a torn eyelid. The center treated it for 36 days and released it on Jan. 4.

Volunteers are part of how that work gets done. The center's volunteer page lists these roles:

• Hospital assistance
• Care for the permanent resident birds
• Rescue and transport anywhere from Homestead to mile marker 70
• Event support, such as Owl-O-Ween
• Education, outreach and docent work
• Gift shop and administrative help

Groups can sign up for projects such as monofilament sorting. The center asks group applicants to email its Outreach Coordinator with their party size and possible dates.

The transport role covers the whole Upper Keys. A volunteer living anywhere between Homestead and MM 70 can be the person who drives an injured bird to the hospital.

If you build or maintain a dock, a deck or a seawall-side walkway in Tavernier, you already know what three decades of salt air and king tides do to wood and fasteners. Kelsey Caputo-Frins is a licensed general contractor and interior designer who notices projects like the new Birdwalk, and she's happy to look at what the same conditions are doing to your outdoor structures. Reach out to Kelsey Caputo-Frins to Request a Valuation & Design Consult. She'll walk the property with you, boards and pilings included.