The following page is devoted to my roadtrip photos of birds from various birding hotspots in southern Texas. Clearly, I did not photograph every kind of bird that can be found in southern Texas, but I have provided a selection of some of my favorite photos of the birds I did happen to see as I passed through.

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I left the colorful and bountiful birds of SE Arizona and headed towards another great birding area, Big Bend National Park in Texas. This area was not only quite scenic, but also had birds everywhere. I birded for an evening and morning at the Rio Grande Village area on the east end of the park. There were so many birds I had a hard time deciding which one to point my camera at! Then I dove 30 miles over to Chinos Basin, where the increased elevation led to some different birds. I hiked the 9.5 mile loop up to Boot Canyon in hopes of finding the Coloma Warbler (the only place it is found in the US), but unfortunately didn't see one (but got plenty of photos of Blue-gray gnatcatchers and Hutton's vireo in a hopeful attempt that these small birds were actually the Coloma warbler). I would have liked to stay at least one more day in the Park, but I wanted to avoid the weekend crowds at my next Texan destination: Santa-Ana and Laguna-Atascosa National Wildlife Refuges in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.

(I went to three major birding areas in Texas: (1) Big Bend National Park, (2) the Rio Grande Valley (where I went to Santa-Ana NWR and Laguna Atascosa NWR), and (3) Upper Texas Gulf Coast (where I went to Goose Island State Park, High Island and Bolivar Flats, and Sabine Woods). These three areas are so far apart and have their own distinct birds, so I grouped the birds separately by location.)

Birds I saw in BiG Bend National Park

Birds I saw in the Rio Grande Valley

After Big Bend, my next stop in Texas was a few days of chasing birds in the lower Rio Grande Valley. I went to two well-known National Wildlife Refuges - the Santa-Ana NWR and the Laguna Atascosa NWR. Together these refuges provided a wide selection of birds - Santa Ana is located along the banks of the lower Rio Grande and Laguna Atascosa is located about 40 miles to the east on the lower Gulf coast. Again, I racked up quite a list of different species and got some photos of a few southern Texan / Mexican specialties such as the Olive Sparrow, Green Jay, Groove-billed Ani, Crested Caracara, Great Kiskadee, Plain Chachalaca, Black-crested Tufted Titmouse, Altamira Oriole, White-tipped Dove, and Clay-colored Robin. Wherever I drove, I saw Scissor Tailed Flycatchers decorating the telephone wires, but whenever I pulled over to get a photograph, the bird would fly away. At this rate, I wondered how many days it would take me to drive to my next birding stop in the famed spring migration birding hot spot of High Island, TX.

Birds I saw on Upper Texas Coast

From the Rio Grande Valley, I began to make my way up the Gulf Coast of Texas. I spent a night in the campground at Goose Island State Park, and found several birds there. Next, I made my way up the coast to the famed High Island and the nearby Bolivar Flats. I spent a few days here, photographing the swarms of shorebirds at Bolivar Flats and colorful variety of woodland and marsh birds in the High Island area (Boy Scout Woods and Smith Oaks Wildlife Sanctuary). There were about as many bird fanatics as birds, and I enjoyed talking to the many interesting people I met from all over the country. I heard of a Painted Bunting being sighted at Sabine Woods (1 hr further up the coast), so I headed over here to find it. Unfortunately, although this stunning bird is relatively common in this part of the country, I did not see one, and. I hoped I would see on at my next stop, which would be Dauphin Island, Alabama, another spring migration birding hotspot.