Finding RARE Birds in South Texas!

The Rio Grande Valley in South Texas is an amazing birding location that normally hosts many rare birds throughout the year. In early November, my friend Nathaniel and I went out to see which rarities we could find with targets including Golden-crowned Warbler, Tropical Parula, and Roadside Hawk.
Special thanks to our members Liz McQuaid, Sarah Coffey, Barbara Cole, Chris Slagle, Sally, Sarah, and Scott Carmichael!
You can check out our donation/membership program here! ko-fi.com/badg...
Gear Links (As Amazon Associates we do earn from qualifying purchases)
Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera
Used for most bird videos) - check credits as we do source some photos/videos elsewhere which is noted in the description
amzn.to/3GZl3Mu
Cayer FP2450 Fluid Head Tripod, 75 inches Aluminium Tripod
Derek's lighter tripod
amzn.to/3suX5CK
Andoer Video Tripod Aluminum Alloy 67 Inch
Derek's heavier tripod
amzn.to/3uRLTTk
Nikon D5300
Derek's vlogging and macro camera
amzn.to/3HF8jeh
Rode VideoMicPro Compact Directional On-Camera Microphone
Derek's external microphone for Nikon D5300
amzn.to/3oH8YnS
Connect with us!
badgerlandbird...
/ badgerlandbirding
/ badgerlandbirding
/ badgerlandbirding \
Thanks to Terry Sohl for allowing us to use his range maps
www.sdakotabir...
Roadside Hawk in cover image by Dan van den Broek (CC by 2.0)
CC by 2.0: creativecommon...
Tropical Parula in cover image by Dario Sanches (CC by 2.0)
Golden-crowned Warbler by Alan Schmierer (CC by 2.0)
All other photos and videos by Derek and Ryan Sallmann
#Birding #BirdWatching #BadgerlandBirding

[@BK-db3gc]

Thanks for sharing this joyful, positive experience. Birding makes people HAPPY.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thank YOU for watching :)

[@jurassic_hobbyonmyaltaccou3878]

I saw my first ever owl species a few days ago here in England! It was calling in the middle of the night and I grabbed a flashlight and went out. It was sitting in a tree even allowing me to get a photo of it with my phone before flying away. So awesome!

[@2listening1]

I had no idea owls were rare. Maybe I have never seen one. When I was little I assumed I was hearing them calling but later I thought it was doves I had heard.

[@jurassic_hobbyonmyaltaccou3878]

@@2listening1 same

[@markshen3280]

Hong Kong 🇭🇰 SAR has wild boars 🐗 🐗🐗🐗🐗🐗🐗running around in the New Territories parks and sometimes in and around semi-rural residential areas as well.

[@krysatheo]

Great video, always love seeing south texas stuff. Such an interesting place!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

One of our favorite places for sure

[@SteveEvansFilms]

Great channel guys, really enjoying the content. Takes me back to the days of looking for Rare birds in the UK...driving through the night, anxiously hoping the birds still there. Keep up the great work!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

That description you gave sounds reeeaaaalllly familiar lol

[@betterbirders]

South TX is one of my favorites! I have been there 3 times and seen all of the common specialties! (most recent was Clay-Colored Thrush which took 3 trips to get even through it is one of the most common!)

[@thecornells7430]

Your Rio Grand Valley videos have been excellent. 🇬🇧 So helpful for us. Have you ever thought about putting them together and producing a guide to birding the Rio grand Valley. This would be so helpful to us non American birders. Thanks again. 🇬🇧

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Definitely thought about something like that! There would be sooooo much info

[@scottsoine8355]

My favorite channel! Just got 10 lifers in SE Idaho and now need to head to South Texas!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Awesome! What was Idaho like??

[@scottsoine8355]

@@BadgerlandBirding Idaho was more lifers than I expected... I was in Pocatello area and first lifer was a black chinned hummingbird at our Airbnb neighbor... Then went out Craters of the moon national monument learned they have one of the largest mountain blue bird breeding populations, also saw a Rock Wren in the campground , Clark's nutcrackers hiking... On the way back to Arco ID I saw a bird and stopped on the road and first horned Lark! Then looking at ebird in Pocatello there was a quarry pond that had great potential would of had no idea... Got American Avocet, White faced Ibis... Then (confirmed by the ABA "What's my bird FB group) with the American Avocet hanging out was a Wilson's Phalarope! Also a Solitary Sandpiper and lastly a least Sandpiper... All off I15 in South Pocatello so an awesome birding trip seeing the in laws!

[@betterbirders]

I got my first red-necked grebe in Idaho!

[@scottsoine8355]

@@betterbirders awesome! Yeah so many different habitats!

[@Florafauneando]

The birdwatching that you did was very interesting, and you were able to see many things. I was interested in seeing many birds that are common here where I live and are rare for you, especially the roadside hawk, so abundant in my town, the juvenile that you saw was beautiful.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

It is funny how people value rarities that are common elsewhere!

[@Beryllahawk]

One of my housemates saw your first South Texas video, and instantly poked me with the most atrocious pun. (Which of course means I'm about to inflict it on you too!) "Plain chachalaca: the less flamboyant relative of the Boom chachalaca" I'm not even sorry, it's so awful it's good haha

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Tell them it’s been done before they’re not special :p

[@Beryllahawk]

@@BadgerlandBirding ahahah I figured it wasn't new, but it was SO BAD that I'm still giggling over it!

[@ronaldnuiver5632]

I live in The Netherlands and was in Texas in 1995. We visit the Rio Grande Valley. Best birds were Bleu Bunting (Santa Ana), gray-capped Yellowthroat, Elf owl, Tropical Parula, Brown Jay, Masked Duck and Hook-billed Kite. During our 4 weeks in de States Texas and Arizona we saw 412 species.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

I think you need to make a return trip!

[@jenniford311]

Wow!

[@sylviamaulding2237]

I live in OR and have birded the Rio Grande Valley 4 times. Lots of Lifers. The 1st time was 1998 and I saw 97 Lifers.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Sounds like you need to come back again!

[@CheikoSairin]

Great birding adventure. Thanks for sharing. 1 big LIKE from Singapore.

[@jaurijantzi424]

My first rare bird was 2 cattle egrets in northern New York , my second rare bird was a boreal chickadee in northern New York , my most recent rare bird was a tricolored heron at Montezuma national wildlife refuge , my goodness it was beautiful, I think it’s my third favorite heron species

[@betterbirders]

The tricolored is one of my favorites. The reddish egret might beat it though!

[@danieltorres-kw6dj]

Some 20 years ago or so, we stayed with some family in South Texas for Christmas, and I got to see a lot of very beautiful, colorful birds coming down of their feeder, wonder if many of them were migrant birds!

[@aj2isotadxing]

Looks like a great festival and place to bird. Rio grande is def on our list for next festival and Magee marsh and Florida keys.

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Magee Marsh is also really cool! The keys is on our list as well

[@aj2isotadxing]

@@BadgerlandBirding If you haven’t done it yet, read Ken Kauffman book “kingbird highway”

[@Chris_Wolfgram]

Hugh Ramsey is a cool place 🙂 Several Green Kingfisher there too 🙂 Didn't get the Golden Crowned Warbler though ☹️

[@BadgerlandBirding]

We didn’t see any Greens but kept an eye out for them!

[@IndyRommelCo]

I love that park. We call it the alligator 🐊 park. I would take my nieces there to run & bird. Be careful with snakes , we’ve seen Coral & others. I have seen that hawk by my mother’s house last fall/winter. It flew over me & my lil Indy Rommel 🐶😨!!! We even had a hawk nest & their young living in old shed @ moms. Breed ?? I never was able to see them but I could hear them at dusk.. 😮

[@BadgerlandBirding]

It would have been so cool to see a Coral Snake there! Thanks for watching :)

[@GreatGray8790]

Nice Roadside Hawk! Congratulations!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thanks! 👍

[@NathanWebb-c5h]

Congrats on your lifers!

[@BadgerlandBirding]

Thank you!!