Best Bird-Watching

Texas is for the birds: Best places for bird-watching in the Lone Star State

Texas presents travelers with a mountain (valleys and rivers) of recreational activities, but sometimes the most rewarding experience can come from just looking up. Some of the best bird watching in the U.S., if not the world, is here. Whether you’re a novice just wondering what that flash of color that flew past is or a twitcher, a bird watcher who likes a little competition in the photo hunt, Texas is a state where the skies, trees, marshes, and beaches teem, cry, sing, and boom with feathered life.

While birding can be all about the journey, a little partying is always nice too. We’ve compiled an overview of some of the best spots recommended by birding experts, but we’ve added in some small town festivals that give humans a good excuse to revel with their feathered friends.

Aransas Wildlife Refuge

This relatively small national refuge perches on many national and world best-birding lists because of one, very endangered bird, the Whooping Crane, the rarest crane species in the world. In fact, in 1941 only 15 individual birds remained. While there are now whoopers in captivity, thanks in part to conservations efforts, the last wild flock is up to approximately 250 birds. After nesting in the Northwest Territories of Canada, they travel 2,500 miles to winter in the refuge.

The Whooping Crane Festival, which is, unfortunately, not named Whoop Fest, annually welcomes the cranes bank to their winter home in Port Aransas. This year's festival ends Monday (Feb. 24) with birdwatching at La Copita Ranch, about seven miles outside Alice, Texas.

Lower Rio Grande Valley

This huge area also finds itself hovering majestically on many best-birding lists. The tip of Texas is a throughway that many birds must traverse when migrating north. For some species, known as “Valley Specialties” this is as far north as they’re going to get, so south Texas is the only place to see these tropical birds in the U.S. Great spots to watch for birds like the Green Jay, Hook-billed Kites, Great Kiskadees, and Plain Chachalaca are the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in Mission, Estero Llano Grande State Park in Weslaco and the Resaca de la Palma in Brownsville.

The fact the mockingbird is the official state bird of Texas and not the wondrous ridiculousness that is Attwater’s Prairie Chicken is surely a travesty of bird justice.

The Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival happens in early winter in Harlingen. Further north, Rockport-Fulton parties with the hummingbirds at their annual Hummer Bird Celebration in September.

Big Bend National Park

For some Texans Big Bend requires an annual visit, for others it’s such a daunting drive that they’ll definitely put it on their bucket list, near the bottom. But for birders across the country, this is paradise.

Mountains, canyons, woodlands, desert, creeks, grasslands and the Rio Grande all meet up in Big Bend, creating a diversity of plant zones that birds love. 450 species have been recorded in the park, and like the lower Rio Grande area some of those birds are unique “specialities,” to the Chisos Mountains or border country, so Big Bend is one of the few spots in the U.S. to see them. Watch for the rare Varied Bunting, Mexican Mallards, Black-Capped and Gray Vireos, and the Colima Warbler. Stare into the abyss that is the tiny eyes of a Lucifer Hummingbird. . .and discover cuteness incarnate.

High Island

If you were one of the five people in the world who saw the 2011 Steve Martin, Owen Wilson, Jack Black competitive bird watching movie The Big Year, you already know that High Island is famous among twitchers because it is often a refuge stop for spring migrating birds flying thousands of miles over water on their way north. Sometimes during a great spring storm over the Gulf, the birds hit a strong headwind and look for a layover to rest. This “fall out” brings thousand of birds inland to take a break among the trees of the Bolivar Peninsula. The Galveston FeatherFest in April offers field and photo trips out to some of High Island’s most famous sites.

The northern Gulf Coast is also one of the best places in Texas to spot our national bird, the Bald Eagle.

Central Texas and the Hill Country

While it might not offer as many celebrity birds, the Hill Country has a plethora of rare bird spotting opportunities like the endangered Black-capped Vireo and golden-cheeked warbler, which nest exclusively in central Texas. Some of the "borderland specialties" manage to get up to this area as well, including the Zone-tailed Hawk, Elf Owl, Vermilion Flycatcher. Try the Kickapoo Cavern State Park or the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge. Not to be outdone by every other birding area, Balcones also has Annual Song Bird Nature Festival.

Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge

About an hour outside of Houston, what may very well be the greatest bird in the universe, the male Attwater’s Prairie Chicken struts his considerable stuff for all the lady prairie chickens. In the spring, he commences with some booming on the lek. For those innocent souls not well versed in the mating stylings of the Attwater’s Prairie Chicken, a lek is a patch of communal ground — in this, case coastal prairie —where certain male species of birds or mammals display their wares and prowess to the females. The male Attwater’s Prairie Chickens will inflate his yellow air sacs to produce a loud booming sound, the ultimate love song that makes all the Attwater Chicken ladies swoon.

The fact the mockingbird is the official state bird of Texas and not the wondrous ridiculousness that is Attwater’s Prairie Chicken is surely a travesty of bird justice. Perhaps this issue could be brought up at the next Attwater Prairie Chicken Festival on April 12-13, because, damn right, there’s a festival for these creatures.

Got a favorite birding spot? Share it with us.

Whooping cranes at Aransas Wildlife Refuge

Aransas Wildlife Refuge whooping cranes birds

Photo by Snowmanradio Wikipedia

Whooping cranes at Aransas Wildlife Refuge

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Now hear this

New Texas museum shines spotlight on Tejano music history

Totally Tejano Hall of Fame and Museum, San Antonio, tejano music

Photo by Edmond Ortiz

Roger Hernandez serves as board president of the Totally Tejano Hall of Fame and Museum.

For a city that proudly calls itself the capital of Tejano music, San Antonio has long been missing a permanent place to honor the genre’s pioneers and preserve its history. That gap officially closed In December with the opening of the Totally Tejano Hall of Fame and Museum at 1414 Fredericksburg Rd.

The music couldn’t have found a better steward than its founder and board president. Roger Hernandez has had his finger on the pulse of Tejano music for decades. His company, En Caliente Productions, has provided a platform for countless performing artists and songwriters in Tejano, conjunto, and regional Mexican music since 1982.

Hernandez says his wife, who ran a shop at Market Square years ago, would often get questions from visitors about the location of a physical Tejano music museum, a thing that simply did not exist. In 2022, he banded together with friends, family, and other local Tejano music supporters to make the nonprofit Hall of Fame a reality.

“I decided I've been in the music scene for over 40 years, it's time to do a museum,” Hernandez recalls.

Hernandez says a brick-and-mortar Tejano music museum has long been needed to remember musical acts and other individuals who grew the genre across Texas and northern Mexico, especially those who are aging. Recently, the community lost famed Tejano music producer Manny Guerra and Abraham Quintanilla, the renowned Tejano singer/songwriter and father of the late superstar Selena Quintanilla-Perez. Both deaths occurred roughly one week after the Totally Tejano museum opened to the public.

“They're all dying. They're all getting older, and we need to acknowledge all these people,” Hernandez says.

The Totally Tejano Museum — named after Hernandez’s Totally Tejano Television Roku streaming — has 5,000 square feet of space packed with plaques, photos, promotional posters, musical instruments, and other memorabilia honoring the pioneers and stars of the beloved genre. Mannequins wear stage outfits from icons like Laura Canales and Flaco Jimenez, and a wall of photos remembers late greats. Totally Tejano Television plays legendary performances on a loop, bringing the exhibits to life.

The newly opened Totally Tejano Hall of Fame and Museum includes a growing collection of memorabilia. Photo by Edmond Ortiz

Hernandez says the museum will soon welcome permanent and rotating exhibits, including traveling shows, a Hall of Fame section, and an area paying homage to Chicano music crossovers, such as the late Johnny Rodriguez, the South Texas singer-songwriter who blended country with Tex-Mex music. Plans call for the organization to hold its inaugural Hall of Fame induction in February 2026.

Eventually, a 2,000 square feet back room will be converted into additional display space and host industry gatherings, community symposiums, and record and video release parties. The museum also plans to add a gift and record shop and a music learning room where visitors can listen to early Tejano music and browse archival photos. Hernandez is already talking with local school districts about educational field trips.

Much like Tejano itself, the museum is a grassroots production. Hernandez and fellow board members have used their own money to rent, renovate, develop, and maintain the museum space. The board also leads the selection of the Hall of Fame honorees and curates the exhibits.

Hernandez has been heartened by the museum’s reception, both from media outlets and music fans around Texas and beyond.

“We had a radio station come in this morning from Houston to interview us,” he says. “People have come in from Lubbock, Texas. We have had people from Midland, Texas. We have another person who emailed us who’s coming in from New York. People are learning all about us.”

That includes many of the musicians who helped shape the genre. Johnny Hernandez, Sunny Ozuna, Elida Reyna, and Danny Martinez from Danny and The Tejanos are among the luminaries who have already graced the halls.

The Totally Tejano Hall of Fame and Museum is now open 10 am-6 pm, Tuesday-Sunday, and closed Monday. Admission is free, but donations are encouraged. Fans can call 210-314-1310 for more information.

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