Texas does everything big, including Texas birds. Even casual birders come to quickly learn that Texas ranks number one in the number of bird species found in a state.
The numbers change from time to time. To date, over 650 have been documented on the Texas bird checklist. That number represents roughly two-thirds of the total number of North American bird species.
Visitors to Texas will find a very friendly birding community. Almost every city and park district is happy to hand out a brochure or bird checklist of the local birds and their seasonal availability. Better yet, arrive at many parks during migration and discover that bird identification is as easy as asking one of the many expert birders present.
A centralized location along two migratory flyways accounts for most of Texas bird diversity. Eight separate ecoregions also mean the state has habitat to accommodate many different types of birds.
Populations of Texas Woodpeckers, for example, change depending on the ecoregion. Texas geography explains most of the woodpecker diversity.
In the west, Texas picks up some of the Southwest woodpecker spillover. In the east they pick up the Gulf Coast woodpecker spillover. The area called the Eastern Pineywoods, for example, hosts eight woodpecker species, including the endangered Red-cockaded woodpecker.
The picture at the top of the page shows a sub-tropical spillover species, the Golden Fronted Woodpecker
Texas Beach Birds
Having miles of shoreline along the Gulf Coast also means Texas supports a healthy population of beach birds. A multitude of waterbirds, wading birds, gulls, terns and shorebirds are abundant along the Texas coast every season of the year.
Check along the coast during the winter, for example, to catch a peek at the ten plover species. Wintering plover populations such as the Wilson’s Plovers and American Golden Plovers (pictured) exhibit a calm enough demeanor to allow for easy photography opportunities.
The Texas north coastal area is a great place during migration. It’s front and center of the Central Flyway, along with being a land intersection for birds who follow the Gulf Coast on the way to and from the Atlantic Flyway.
Hawk migration picks up steam a bit south of the intersection in Corpus Christi. It’s one of the premier hawk watch destinations in the country, where upward to one million hawks have been counted during the fly by on their way to their southern winter grounds.