Section 744.301(1), Florida Statutes (2007), provides that:
The mother and father jointly are natural guardians of their own children and of their adopted children, during minority.. . . The mother of a child born out of wedlock is the natural guardian of the child and is entitled to primary residential care and custody of the child unless a court of competent jurisdiction enters an order stating otherwise.
§ 744.301(1), Fla. Stat. Under the statute, when an unwed father "demonstrates and carries out the requisite settled purpose to be a father, he comes within the first sentence of the statute, making him a natural guardian along with the unwed mother."
State v. Earl, 649 So. 2d 297, 298 (Fla. 5th DCA 1995) (citing
DeCosta v. N. Broward Hosp. Dist., 497 So. 2d 1281 (Fla. 4th DCA 1986)). The last sentence, which states that the mother of a child born out of wedlock is the natural guardian, applies only when there is no father who has declared his paternity and acted like a father to the child.
Id.