Texas Most Wanted?

With 650 accepted species having been observed in the state of Texas (according to the Texas Bird Records Committee) our state has quite a wealth of avian diversity to keep a bird enthusiast busy. During a recent conversation the topic of “what is your most wanted Texas bird” came up and I found thinking of the possibilities entertaining. There are some doozies on the list such as Paint-billed Crake and Collared Forest Falcon but it seemed more fun to think about a bird that is regularly found in the state. I had to really scratch my head to think of one but the exercise reminded me of a little quest I had back in 2006 to photograph all of the regularly occurring species of sparrows that could be found in Texas. It seemed like a pretty manageable goal and by December I had photographed all but one, the Baird’s Sparrow.

I did my research and determined that my best chances were to explore the back roads around Marfa so I cashed the last of my vacation days and headed out west. I planned to spend a couple of days at Big Bend NP and then head to Marfa for three days to try my luck with the sparrow. It ended up being a bitter cold three days made all the cooler by the absence of my special bird. I counted down my hours until it was time to head home and turned my car in the direction of I-10 by way of Ft Davis. As luck would have it, I spotted a sparrow on a fence that looked interesting and pulled over and clicked off a couple of photos. I looked down at the screen on the back of my camera and to my delight it was a Baird’s Sparrow! I looked back up to get some better shots only to discover that the bird had flown away. It’s amazing how much those few seconds with the bird lifted my spirits.

So if you are still reading, do you have any Texas bird that you would REALLY like to see? If so please share what it is.

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