Last updated on June 12th, 2022 at 02:07 am
Birding in Texas is uniquely rewarding because it’s home to so many rare and hard-to-find species. You’ll experience plenty of bird sightings along the Great Texas Coastal Birding Trail — home to over 300 birding sites.
Here are 9 rare birds that you can find in Texas:
1. Black-bellied Whistling-Duck
The black-bellied Whistling-Duck is a rare duck with black-tipped, white wings and a bright red beak. Its body is maroon-brown, with a black underside.
These ducks are more common in Mexico and Florida but can occasionally be found in Texas, particularly during the breeding season.
You’ll find the Black-bellied Whistling-Duck around shallow ponds and short grass and around agricultural fields where there’s grain available to eat.
These birds are nocturnal feeders, so watch for them at night.
The Black-Bellied Whistling-Duck was formerly known as the Tree Duck because it perches and nests in trees.
The call of a Black-bellied Whistling-Duck sounds like a high whistling noise followed by a pattern of repeating notes, and they make this noise when they’re standing, swimming, or in flight.
While they’re taking off, they make a “chit-chit-chit” noise.
2. Snow Goose
You can find the rare Snow Goose in Texas during the winter months and in the extreme North of Canada during the breeding season.
There were only 2,000 Snow Geese in the wild as of the year 1900, but they’ve started making a comeback in recent years.
The Snow Goose lives in marshes, ponds, bays, and agricultural fields where food is plentiful. Most commonly, these birds are found in saltwater regions.
Unfortunately, the Snow Goose has lost a significant amount of range due to climate change, and it’s likely to lose even more range in the future as the tundra warms.
You’re most likely to find the Snow Goose in a flock, but you may also see a single bird foraging for food in shallow waters.
3. Cackling Goose
The Cackling Goose is closely related to the Canada Goose but rarer.
Red and arctic foxes were being released into the wild for a time, resulting in increased predation in the Cackling Goose’s nesting grounds.
Because of this, they became endangered in 1967.
The Cackling Goose has since made a comeback.
They were recategorized as a threatened species in 1991 and then ultimately removed from the U.S. Endangered Species List in 2001.
Yet sightings of the Cackling Goose remain rare in the United States.
You’ll find the Cackling Goose foraging in pastures and fields with short grass or salt marshes and wet meadows. They feed on plants, both on land and in the water.
You can recognize a Cackling Goose by its small size and rounded head. They often travel with Canadian Geese, and they can easily be mistaken as small Canadian Geese.
4. Red-billed Pigeon
The Red-billed Pigeon is a shy bird that’s hard to spot, native to forests, mangroves, and farmlands.
You can find this bird in the Rio Grande Valley in South Texas and across Mexico and Central America.
You can recognize the Red-billed Pigeon by its blue-ish gray and maroon plumage.
They’ll often be paired or in small flocks making a cooing song that sounds like “whoo, whoop-a-whoo.” See the following clip of a Red-billed Pigeon singing its song:
5. Limpkin
The Limpkin is a heron-like wetland bird found mainly in Florida, Mexico, and the Caribbean but occasionally found in Texas.
You can recognize a Limpkin by its curved beak, which it uses to eat apple snails.
You’ll know that it has frequented an area by the pile of snail shells it leaves on the edge of a wetland area.
Limpkins were named for their distinctive, limp-like gait, despite being very fast runners when necessary.
Despite looking almost like a heron, the Limpkin is more closely related to cranes and rails than herons. Moreover, it’s the only member of its taxonomic family.
6. Inca Dove
The Inca Dove is smaller than a robin but bigger than a sparrow, recognizable by its scaled feathers and its square-tipped tail.
Its bill is curved forward, and its legs are small.
You can find the Inca Dove in open areas with scattered trees and shrubs across Mexico, Central America, and South Texas. Its call sounds similar to “no hope.”
7. Green-Breasted Mango
The Green-breasted Mango is a large hummingbird with a curved bill and green and shiny blue plumage.
Predominantly a tropical bird, the Green-breasted Mango is a rare sight in the United States. However, you can occasionally spot one in southern Texas.
The call of a Green-breasted Mango sounds like a repeated, buzzy “tsup” noise.
And you can find these birds in open areas with scattered trees, as well as orchards and gardens. They’re also drawn to flowering plants, which they visit for their nectar.
The Green-breasted Mango can usually be found on its own, even during the breeding season. They don’t form flocks or pair bonds.
This bird can easily be confused with the Colombian Veraguan Mango, which looks similar but has a blue stripe down its breast, where the Green-breasted Mango has a black stripe.
8. Cinnamon Teal
The male Cinnamon Teal is recognizable by its deep reddish-brown plumage; the female has a brown body and is harder to spot.
These ducks have a long bill that they use to scour the surface of the water for food. They live in freshwater wetlands, mangrove swamps, estuaries, and reservoirs.
The Cinnamon Teal is more common in South American than in North America.
Two subspecies of the Cinnamon Teal live only in Colombia, where others are found in Peru and countries south of Peru.
The sound of a male Cinnamon Teal is a low “karr karr karr,” while the females respond with a quiet “rrr” or a short quack and a “gack-gack-ga-ga” call.
9. Purple Gallinule
The Purple Gallinule is a deep purple, medium-sized bird with long yellow legs and a bright red and yellow bill.
They live in freshwater ponds and marshes and are often seen foraging along the muddy edges of the water or walking on top of floating vegetation.
See the following video of a Purple Gallinule walking on top of lily pads:
These birds can swim very well, and they can climb. They perch high up in trees and bushes.