Southern tip of Texas calls to devoted bird-watchers

This fall, I found myself doing a different sort of bird-watching while making a connecting flight at Dallas/Fort Worth Airport during a trip from Denver to McAllen — located in Texas’ Hidalgo County, about 70 miles west of South Padre Island.

A large bird was flying from gate area to gate area, tenaciously tracking tasty crumbs and amusing the temporarily landlocked humans with his antics.

Somehow, since we were on our way to the Rio Grande Valley, considered by many experts to be the top bird-watching destination in the nation — our hungry little airport bird seemed a friendly harbinger of the days to come.

“For year-round bird-watching, I’d say that the lower Rio Grande Valley is the single best location in the USA,” says Kenn Kaufman, a field editor for Audubon Magazine who leads birding and nature tours to all seven continents. He is also an editor and book author, exclusively on nature subjects.

“The sheer abundance and variety of birds, the mix of Eastern and Western species, the many subtropical birds that live near the Mexico border, and the vast number of migratory birds that move through the area, all combine to make this region endlessly exciting for bird-watchers,” Kaufman adds.

And he’s not kidding.

Indeed, a whopping 540 species have been documented in this four-county region of the Rio Grande Valley, about 500 miles from Fort Worth, and more than 40,000 people come here from all over the world to see birds they cannot see anywhere else north of the Mexican border, such as the buff-bellied hummingbird and the great kiskadee.

Native, permanent resident birds include the plain chachalaca, white-winged dove, Altamira oriole (largest oriole in the U.S.), red-crowned parrot, green parakeets, common pauraque, black-bellied whistling ducks, clay-colored thrush, long-billed and curve-billed thrasher, olive sparrow and, my favorite, the dramatically lovely lime-colored green jays, which sport robin’s-egg blue heads with black plumage on the neck.

During migration, birders see Eastern screech owls, Couch’s kingbirds and countless others.

Many types here are “accidental,” which means they are not typical in the region. There are also more than 1,000 native plants that attract the birds, as well as myriad butterflies (and the National Butterfly Center is in the region as well).

Migrating raptors (turkey vultures, broad-winged hawks, Mississippi kites and Swainson’s hawks, among others) move through from mid-March through late April. Migrating songbirds (warblers, orioles, tanagers, thrushes, cuckoos, grosbeaks and buntings, etc., about 60 species in all) come through the area from early April to late May.

They all (both raptors and songbirds) return south again to their Central and South American homes in the fall, mainly from August through December. There are also many species of water birds and shorebirds that winter in the Valley, from November into March.

The more the merrier

With all this interest in the avian life, McAllen and environs have made bird-watching a priority.

There are nine World Birding Centers in the Rio Grande Valley, with five in the immediate area around McAllen, including Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley, Edinburg Scenic Wetlands, Estero Llano Grande, Quinta Mazatlan and Hidalgo Pump House.

Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge is also nearby, and well worth a visit.

This network of distinctly different birding sites is set along a 120-mile historic river road — each sponsored by a different community that charges very nominal admission fees and offers regular bird walks and other nature events.

It’s a $20 million development based on the joint partnership between the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Rio Grande Valley communities and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Each center has its own attributes, personality and flora and fauna. A couple even have alligators.

The Valley is a major bird migration corridor featuring the convergence of two major flyways (the Central and Mississippi) used by an abundance of Northern species that take to the air to avoid the winter cold and to take advantage of Northern breeding habitats.

In a lot of ways, the lower Rio Grande Valley is a world apart from the rest of Texas — more of a blend of the cultures of Mexico and the United States than perhaps anywhere else in the Lone Star State.

The border area is proud of its natural wonders, and it is actively expanding wildlife refuges from the Gulf of Mexico westward to the thorny hills of Starr County.

A beautiful must-see is Quinta Mazatlan, one of the World Birding Centers but also home to a 1930s adobe hacienda, built and restored in splendid Spanish Revival style, surrounded by tropical landscaping and native woodlands.

Trails wind through some 20 acres of bird and animal habitat, but the hacienda itself is nicknamed “mansion with a mission.” It is owned by the city of McAllen and features period furniture, art and tapestries, as well as a small but exquisite folkloric art room — well worth a visit.

Many locals hold their weddings in the mansion or in the garden areas.

Give me some space

The International Museum of Art & Science, a Smithsonian affiliate, is a place where visitors can easily spend at least two hours. This McAllen cultural site, as its name indicates, is a rare mix of art museum and science museum, with a healthy dose of both.

The art section of the museum awaited us, so we went to view the five art galleries, including a gorgeously staged temporary exhibit, “Sacred Visions” (up until late April, possibly later), on Louis Comfort Tiffany stained-glass panels salvaged from churches in various places.

The exquisite opalescent colors for which Tiffany was famed glow here — it’s a gem of an exhibit (no Tiffany pun intended).

Retail therapy

McAllen is beloved by middle- and upper-class Mexicans for its extensive shopping malls. They often travel here for power-shopping trips on three-day weekends. Retail sales are a major contributor to the economy in the area, even more so than wildlife tourism.

Dining is a treat here, too, but this is not a Tex-Mex haven. You’ll find offerings of it, but authentic Mexican cuisine in McAllen represents many different regions of the country, such as Puebla, Nayarit and Guerrero.

During our visit, regional specialties like mole poblano, pescado zarandeado and shrimp in poblano cream sauce were prepared perfectly — and at very reasonable prices. McAllen’s huge roster of restaurants includes Italian, fusion and Asian, plus a nice mix of hip and trendy new bars.

On our last day, we visited Estero Llano Grande, where we were captivated by a flock of some 30 to 40 soaring white pelicans. As they swooped and did their aerial ballet in perfect unison, their wings changed from black to white, depending on their direction.

Nature’s majesty was there in all of its splendor — ducks and geese below, green jays flitting in and out, and a magnificent spectacle in the sky above us.

If you’re a birder, the Rio Grande Valley won’t disappoint, and if you’re not, you stand a good chance of becoming one here.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 10:54 AM with the headline "Southern tip of Texas calls to devoted bird-watchers."