Important Bird Areas: Gulf Coastal Prairie & Tamaulipan Brushlands

The sites listed here come from The American Bird Conservancy Guide to the 500 Most Important Bird Areas in the United States (2003). The Tamaulipan Brushlands (sites #1-7) include southernmost Texas along the lower Rio Grande Valley, and extends into adjacent northeastern Mexico; Plain Chachalaca, Buff-bellied Hummingbird, Long-billed Thrasher, and Audubon's Oriole are among the many Mexican birds that barely enter the U.S. in this area, along with White-tailed Hawk and Botteri's Sparrow in grasslands. The Gulf Coastal Prairie (sites #8-32) of coastal Louisiana and Texas has some of the greatest colonial waterbird concentrations in the world, while also providing critical stopover habitat for migrating shorebirds and songbirds, and wetlands used by huge numbers of wintering waterfowl. Site #33 is from the adjacent Oaks and Prairies region, a transitional zone between the Great Plains and eastern forests; Mississippi Kite, Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, and Painted Bunting all nest here.