East Texas Birds, Birding, and Bird Watching

We love bird watching, and East Texas is a great place for that interest!

Although the Texas Gulf Coast remains prime bird watching territory, our mild winters in Tyler and East Texas provide great opportunities to watch winter migrants. The Texas Bird Records Committee has recognized 636 species as Texas Birds.

Birding fulfills many of our basic criteria for what makes for good outdoor recreation. Birds appeal to our sense of beauty, their colors and plumages dazzling to the eye. You don't have to be rich to be a birder, maybe only have a pair of binoculars on hand. And you don't have to travel far, as there are usually many species to be seen in your own backyard.

East Texas Birding Venues

There are lots of birding venues in the area, including Tyler State Park, Lake Tyler and Camp Tyler, and Lake Palestine. More than 220 species have been recorded at Camp Tyler, and many birds that are rare in east Texas have put in brief appearances here, including Roseate Spoonbill, Cinnamon Teal, Crested Caracara, Peregrine Falcon, White-winged Dove, Golden-winged, Palm, Cerulean, Worm-eating, and Swainson's Warblers, Blackpoll, Lazuli Bunting, American Tree Sparrow, and Smith's Longspur. In winter, the grassy areas and shrubbery are excellent for sparrows.

Other popular East Texas sites include Faulkner Park, Lake Fork, the Mineola Nature Preserve, Old Sabine Bottoms WMA, Lake Bob Sandlin, along Toledo Bend Reservoir, and Caddo Lake.

East Texas Bird Species

We see, and hear, a variety of species near Tyler:

Cardinal	Kestrel
Blue Jay	Rose-Breasted Grosbeak
Carolina Wren	Brown Headed Cowbird
Carolina Chickadee	Pileated Woodpecker
Brown Thrasher	Roadrunner
House Sparrow	Summer Tanager
White Throated Sparrow	Yellow-Breasted Chat
Tufted Titmouse	Yellow Rump Warbler
Red Bellied Woodpecker	Nuthatch
Downy Woodpecker	Pine Siskin
Flicker	Pine Warbler
Goldfinch	Chuck Wills Widow
Dark Eyed Junco	Baltimore Oriole
Ruby Crowned Kinglet	House Finch
Red Tailed Hawk	Yellow-Bellied Sapsucker
Robin	Cedar Waxwing
Crow	Indigo Bunting
Eastern Bluebird	Painted Bunting
Great Blue Heron	Blackbird
Ruby Throated Hummingbird	Mourning Dove
Eastern Phoebe	Mockingbird

Bird Guides and Resources

Some of our favorite birding guides and bird reference books include the following:

Field Guide to the Birds of North America, by National Geographic
All the Birds of North America, by the American Bird Conservancy
North American Birdfeeder Handbook
Peterson Field Guide of Eastern Birds
Golden Field Identification of the Birds of North America

There are hundreds of excellent websites devoted to birding, but some of our favorites, and highly recommended, include the Tyler Audubon Society, the Texas Ornithological Society, and the American Birding Association.

For our supplies, we often visit Rubicon International on Highway 155 just south of Tyler.

Rubicon also offers periodic classes on owls, bluebirds, hummingbirds, and bird photography. We've attended the classes, and highly recommend these learning experiences from noted Texas birding experts. We've enjoyed conferences there given by Clifford Shackleford, the author of the widely distributed and well known book "Hummingbirds of Texas".

Handcrafted and personalized in Texas!

Shown here are a few quick favorites of some recent sightings ... we'll get more posted from our archives shortly ... so visit again soon. And be sure to view our section on East Texas Hummingbirds and the East Texas Butterfly Photo Gallery.

Pileated Woodpecker in East Texas