✏️ By Chris Bick, Houston Audubon 2021 Young Professionals Advisory Council I wanted to create an informal guide or informational source to creating a backyard habitat using my experience and my yard dimensions as the basis for the guide. These recommendations can be scaled to fit your yard size and restrictions when you create your […]
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Broad-winged Hawk (Buteo platypterus) Family: Accipitridae The Broad-winged Hawk is a small sized raptor with a brown upper body, reddish head, barred undersides, and a black and white banded tail. Broad-winged Hawks are what birders like to call “Buteos” which refers to their genus. Buteos are typically distinguished from the other major genus of hawk […]
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✏️ By Lauren Miheli, Houston Audubon Membership and Volunteer Manager As you might expect, the majority of Houston Audubon’s members are from… that’s right, Texas. You might be surprised (as we were!) to learn that we have members in not only Texas, but in 21 other states around the country! We were curious about why […]
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✏️ By Ryan Call, Houston Audubon Young Professionals Advisory Council 2021 Pileated Woodpecker (Dryocopus pileatus) Family: Picidae Records show that the Pileated Woodpecker is the largest woodpecker in North America—the Ivory-Billed Woodpecker and the Imperial Woodpecker were larger but are presumed extinct. An unmistakable, crested, red and black, crow-sized bird, the Pileated Woodpecker makes its […]
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By Alan Murphy, Alan Murphy Photography Every April for the past twenty-five years, I photograph bird migration on the Upper Texas Coast. When I arrive on the coast and drive the back roads looking for birds, the first sounds I always hear is the loud, flutelike song of the Eastern Meadowlark. Although they nest on […]
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Least Bittern (Ixobrychus exilis) Family: Ardeidae The Least Bittern is the smallest North American heron and blends into its marshy habitat exceptionally well. Measuring only about 12-13 inches, these tiny herons have a long neck, with a dark brown to black crown and back blending to warm tan on the sides and tan and white […]
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By Ryan Call, Houston Audubon 2021 Young Professionals Advisory Council (YPAC) About this time every summer, we receive questions about ridiculous-looking birds: birds with oddly mismatched feathers, birds without feathers, birds that seem bedraggled or undernourished or sickly-looking. For the most part, these birds are perfectly fine! They’re just in the midst of a completely natural […]
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✏️ By Ryan Call, Houston Audubon Young Professionals Advisory Council 2021 Downy Woodpecker (Dryobates pubescens) Family: Picidae Perhaps the most common woodpecker in North America, the Downy Woodpecker thrives all across the continent: from the tree line in Alaska and Canada to the southernmost forests of California and Florida (Birds of the World). In Houston, […]
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✏️ By Anna Vallery, Houston Audubon Conservation Specialist, Bird-Friendly Communities Program Manager While you’re still hanging out by the pool and enjoying summer BBQs, many migratory birds are wrapping up their breeding seasons and getting ready to fly south for the winter. Fall migration kicks into gear in mid-August and continues all the way into November, […]
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✏️ By Ryan Call, Houston Audubon Young Professionals Advisory Council 2021 Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura) Family: Cathartidae A hardy, adaptive bird, the Turkey Vulture thrives in the Houston area and beyond. It’s a bird you can often see high above the terrain, its wings upswept in a shallow dihedral, the bird rocking back and forth […]
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