sign in sign up
<<
Home , Birdwatching, Cattle egret, Tern, Wader (American)

Roseate Spoonbill • L 32”• Uncom- Why are Important of the mon, declining • Unmistakable pale Breeding Birds Texas pink wading with a long bill end- • Bird abundance is an important indicator of the ing in flat “spoon”• Nests on islands health of coastal in vegetation • Wades slowly through American White • L 62” Reddish • L 30”• Threatened in water, sweeping touch-sensitive bill •Common, increasing • Large, white • Revenue generated by , , and Texas, decreasing • Dark morph has slate- side to side in search of prey helps support the coastal economy in bird with black flight and gray body with reddish breast, neck, and Tague Chuck bright yellow bill and pouch • Nests Texas head; white morph completely white – both in groups on islands with sparse have pink bill with Black-bellied Whistling- vegetation • Preys on small fish in black tip; shaggy- • L 21”• Lo- groups looking cally common, increasing • Goose-like duck Threats to Island-Nesting Bay Birds Tague Chuck with long neck and pink legs, pinkish-red bill, Greg Lavaty Greg • Nests in mixed- species colonies in low vegetation or on black belly, and white eye-ring • Nests in tree • Habitat loss from erosion and degradation cavities • Occasionally nests in mesquite and • L 51”• Endangered in ground • Uses quick, erratic movements to • Predators such as , feral hogs, and stir up prey Tague Chuck other woody vegetation on bay islands Texas, but common and increasing • Large • Feeds on plants and seeds in shallow water Laughing that eat and young gray-brown bird with distinctive bill and pouch Clipart.com – breeding adults have yellow head with dark Little Blue • L 24”• Uncommon, • Disturbance from humans and their pets brown neck• Colonial nesters on islands with decreasing • Smaller ; entirely blue- gray with long, greenish legs and bluish Clapper • L 14.5”• Locally com- • Entanglement in discarded or lost fishing tackle dense vegetation and low shrubs • Plunge- dives to feed on fish bill – immature birds mon, trend unknown • Thin, -like and other debris Tague Chuck are white with or bird, grayish to rusty brown with long, without blue mottling orange bill • Nests in clumped grasses Great Blue Heron• L 46”• Com- • Nests in mixed- or low in forks of woody vegetation • Robert Stalnaker Robert mon, slightly decreasing • Largest species colonies on Forages alone among mangroves and islands in low shrubs or mangroves • Slowly Tague Chuck heron– overall gray-blue with Lavaty Greg along marsh edges yellowish bill – will extend and coil wades through water with a stiff, extended neck in search of prey long neck • Nests colonially on islands in mangroves • Wades to Egret • L 20”• Common, stable Killdeer • L 10.5”• Common, de- feed on a wide variety of prey • Smallest white egret, with stocky body, creasing • Large plover with double Chuck Tague Chuck short legs, rusty-buff plumes on back, chest, black neck band and red eye ring Chuck Tague Chuck Chuck Tague Chuck • Solitary nester on bare ground, nestlings Tricolored Heron nestlings and head, and reddish-orange bill • Nests in • L 39”• Common, slightly mixed-species groups on vegetated coastal gravel, or sandy/shell-based surfaces decreasing • Large, white wading bird islands • Usually seen foraging in agricul- • Forages on land or water’s edge How to Avoid Disturbing Birds with long, orange-yellow bill and black Tague Chuck

tural areas inland; feeds on Tague Chuck legs; during breeding season has long “Fish, Swim, and Play From 50 Yards Away!” plumes on back and lime-green skin Snowy Plover • L 6.25”• Uncom- around eyes • Nests in groups among — Gary P Nunn, The Music Ambassador of Texas Black-crowned Night-Heron • L 25” mon, decreasing • Small pale brown- other species on mangrove islands • Common, decreasing • Mid-sized, gray plover with black forehead stripe •Wades or waits motionlessly to capture and ear patch, and partial neck band • Obey posted areas where groups of birds are Tague Chuck nocturnal heron fish or other prey with short legs –black bill and gray legs • Solitary nesting on islands and neck – black nester on sandy or shelly ground

cap and back, Tague Chuck • Feeds on ground or on tidal flats • Anchor your vessel at least 50 yards away from • L 24”• Common, de- Chuck Tague Chuck gray wings and creasing • Small, white egret with long nesting islands tail, and red eyes. Juveniles are brown with black bill - yellow feet contrast with dark Wilson’s Plover • L 8”• Uncommon,

white streaking • Nests in groups on islands Tague Chuck • Keep children and pets away from nesting islands legs; yellow skin around eye • Nests in decreasing • Mid-size plover with in shrubs or mangroves • Crouches at water’s edge waiting to mixed-species colonies among shrubs single neck band, thick black bill, and strike and capture fish and other prey • Move away from nesting birds if they increase • Slowly wades through water with white forehead • Nesting on sandy vocalization, off their nests, or otherwise move neck extended in search of prey bare ground, often among Least away from you Tague Chuck White • L 25”• Common, colonies • Eats mostly ,

stable • White, mid-sized wader including crabs, , and shrimp Lavaty Greg • Do not leave discarded fishing tackle behind– Tricolored Heron • L 26”• Common with long, downward-curving, red- but decreasing • Mid-sized heron; dispose of it properly on the mainland orange bill and legs. Juveniles mot- American Oystercatcher • L 17” slate gray back and dark breast with tled brown • Nests on mangrove • Common, stable • Black and brown contrasting white belly • Nests in • If you see someone destroying nests or disturbing islands • Uses touch-sensitive bill with white underside; large, laterally- mixed-species colonies on islands a nesting colony of birds, please contact: to probe shallow water and soft flattened, reddish-orange bill and red in dense vegetation • Chases fish mud in search of food Chuck Tague Chuck eye ring • Nests on shores and dredge Texas Parks & at 1-800-792-GAME (4263) through water, crouching low and spoil islands with little to no vegetation

Chuck Tague Chuck quickly stabbing bill to catch prey • Forages on tidal flats for shellfish Chuck Tague Chuck Black-necked Stilt • L 14” • L 15”• Com- • Common, trend unknown • Slen- mon, increasing • Mid-sized tern der shorebird with long reddish-pink with shaggy black cap, slender, Breeding Birds legs, black upperparts, white under- black bill with yellow tip • Nests parts, and long, thin, black bill in groups, usually with Royal • Nests on vegetation clumps over , on sandy or shelly ground Fun Waterbird Facts of the Texas Coast water • Stands or wades slowly with little vegetation • Dives to

Tom Grey Tom through shallow water to catch prey catch fish near water’s surface –

also eats crustaceans Tague Chuck • Waterbirds take a wide variety of prey, including fish, crustaceans, snails, shellfish, worms, , rep- A Fisherman’s and Boater’s Bird Guide Willet • L 15”• Common, status tiles, and insects. Roseate Spoonbills are pink because unknown • Large, drab, gray-brown Forster’s Tern • L 13”• Local, the crustaceans they eat contain pink pigmentation. February – August shorebird with long bill and legs – declining • Mid-sized tern with in flight shows distinctive black and black cap, orange bill with black • The Killdeer, like many plovers, will feign a wing injury white wing stripe • Solitary ground tip, and orange legs • Nests on if you get too close to its nest. This behavior is called a nester amid marsh or beach grasses the ground in smaller colonies amid marsh and grasses • broken-wing display, and is used to lure predators away • Forages on beaches and tidal flats Lavaty Greg Plunge-dives to capture prey from the nest.

Chuck Tague Chuck • Like , many fish- birds, such as terns and Laughing • L 16”• Abundant, Black Skimmers, regurgitate “pellets” – non-digestible increasing • Breeding adult has black parts of their prey such as bones or scales. hood, reddish-black bill, and dark gray • L 9”• Uncommon, declin- back with white underparts –juveniles • The American Oystercatcher has a laterally com- ing • Smallest local tern – yellow bill are varying shades of brown• Nests in pressed bill that allows it to easily pry open shellfish to large colonies • Opportunistic feeder; and legs, white forehead, black cap • Nests in sparse colonies on bare, reach its soft-bodied prey inside.

Greg Lavaty Greg will take eggs and young of other birds sandy or shelly ground • Hovers and • Terns and Black Skimmers display a behavior called plunge-dives to catch small fish and • L 21”• Common, shrimp “mobbing”, flying up as a group to dive-bomb people, Chuck Tague Chuck stable •Large tern with thick red dogs, or predators that approach their nesting colonies. bill and black cap • Nests with Agitated birds will peck at and defecate on intruders, so other terns and gulls on bare or steer clear of nesting colonies! • L 18” • Common, sparsely vegetated ground •Dives decreasing • Large, black bird with to capture fish near the water’s • Black Skimmers rest in a strange position – they lay flat white underparts, neck, and forehead on the ground with their heads stretched out in front of surface Lavaty Greg –large, red and black bill with lower them. “Rest assured” they aren’t dead! bill longer than upper • Nests in groups on bare ground, sometimes Gull-billed Tern • L 14”• Local, with Least Terns • Feeds by skimming Coastal Bend Bays & Estuaries Program declining • Mid-sized tern – breed- surface of water with bill, snapping up 1305 N. Shoreline Blvd., Suite 205 ing adults have black cap, short, prey by feel Corpus Christi, Texas 78401 sturdy, black bill, pale gray upper- Lavaty Greg 361.885.6202 • www.cbbep.org parts • Nests in small colonies on bare to sparsely vegetated ground Gulf Coast Bird Observatory • Makes long, swooping dives to 103 Hwy 332 West Lake Jackson, TX 77566 Greg Lavaty Greg capture aquatic prey 979.480.0999 • www.gcbo.org

Royal Tern • L 20”• Common, American Bird Conservancy increasing • Similar to Caspian 4249 Loudoun Avenue Tern, but with thinner orange bill– The Plains, VA 20198 adults have black cap, non- 540.253.5780 • www.abcbirds.org breeders partial cap • Nests in Texas large, mixed-species colonies on 510 S. Congress Ave., Suite 102 bare to sparsely vegetated ground Austin, TX 78704 • Plunge-dives to catch fish, also 512.782.0895 • www.tx.audubon.org

eats crabs and shrimp Gary Smyle

Sources: Sibley Field Guide to Birds (2003), Birds of North American Online (Cornell Lab of , 2011) Fish, Swim, and Play Great Egret: ClipArt.com From 50 Yards Away! American Oystercatchers: Chuck Tague COVER PHOTO: Naples Daily News/David Albers