This beautiful Green Jay is known locally in southernmost Texas as the Rio Grande Jay. The Green Jay has such brilliant colors! This one was kind enough to land on this stump surrounded by red pencil cactus. They are very social and are usually in family flocks like other members of the Jay family. This brightly colored bird lives in the tropics with only a very small area of South Texas fortunate enough to encounter this iridescent species.

They call this bird a Chachalaca, a Plain Chachalaca. It is found in the US only in the most southern tip of Texas. They are very unusual looking and very loud. I see nothing Plain at all about this bird!

This is such a magnificent bird! His rusty colored shoulders and white rump are so gorgeous in flight. I captured this image in a field in South Texas.

This Long-Billed Thrasher conveniently took a very long bath in front of my lens while I was in the Lower Rio Grande Valley.  This is a new species for me, I thought it was a Brown Thrasher.  These beautiful birds only live in southern Texas and Eastern Mexico.  I feel very fortunate to have had this wonderful show!

This desert bird looks so much like a female cardinal that I thought this one was a female Cardinal until after I took the picture. They live only in the very southern parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Texas and in fact it’s nickname is the Desert Cardinal, probably because it’s real name is Pyrrhuloxia.