Guide to Birding in the Rio Grande Valley

All of Texas is a spectacular area for birding, but nowhere is more spectacular than the Rio Grande Valley. While many Texan species fly from region to region and some species are findable just about everywhere, the Rio Grande Valley has species found nowhere else in Texas (or, often, in the United States). These species include the Aplomado Falcon, the Tamaulipas Crow, the Black-tailed and Slaty-backed Gull, as well as the Thayer’s, California, and Lesser Black-backed Gull. The Tropical Kingbird, the Altimira Oriole, the Red-crowned Parrot, the Elf Owl, the Gray Hawk, Hook-billed Kite, and the (rare, rare) Common Black-hawk are a few more of these unique species. There are really a few too many to list.

The Rio Grande Valley is also home to the more "typical" Southern Texas birds, such as the Curve-billed Thrasher, the Green Jay, the Verdin, and the White-tailed Kite, among others.

The Rio Grande Valley is also home to some colonies, such as the gathering of White-winged Doves in the Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area. Green Parakeets are very loud and colonize all over the Valley. The Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is a spectacular place for predatory birds, and one of Texas’s great hawk migrations is here in the fall.

Lon C. Hill Park is home to November’s Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival and the World Birding Center is in the Rio Grand Valley as well. They’ve set aside a number of places as special World Birding sites, which are listed below.

Rio Grande Valley State Park
Edinburg Scenic Wetlands
Quinta Mazatlan
The Hildago Pumphouse Discovery and Heritage Center
Roma Bluffs
The Laguna Madre Nature Trail (South Padre Island Birding Center)
Resaca de la Palma State Park
Las Palomas Wildlife Management Area (Arroyo Colorado Unit)
Harlingen Arroyo Colorado
Estero Llano Grande State Park

Other Birding Sites