The Rookery Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve is located in Florida at the northern end of the Ten Thousand Islands on the gulf coast. The Reserve contains one of the few remaining undisturbed mangrove estuaries in North America.

Rookery Bay contains 110,000 acres of pristine mangrove forest, uplands and protected waters comprising a unique habitat. A myriad of wildlife, including 150 species of birds and many threatened and endangered animals, thrive in the estuarine environment and surrounding upland hammocks and scrub found within the Reserve.