Gulf Coast Bird Observatory

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Gulf Coast Bird Observatory Protecting birds and their habitats around the Gulf of Mexico and beyond. and in Latin American wintering grounds.

By providing technical assistance, funding and other resources to partners including federal, state and local agencies, private landowners, and especially non-profit conservation groups we have restored 2,500 acres of Gulf coast habitat, supported the development of dozens of public use facilities along the Texas coast, and permanently protected 24,030 acres of habitat in the U.S. In addition to the birds and other wildlife resources, coastal and tropical ecosystems protected by our programs provide services that support economies, public health and community resiliency.

Join us bird watching the morning of Saturday, October 31st (8am-Noon) at Rice University’s Nature Preserve. Rice Profes...
10/21/2026

Join us bird watching the morning of Saturday, October 31st (8am-Noon) at Rice University’s Nature Preserve. Rice Professor and GCBO Science Advisor Cin-Ty Lee will be on hand at the Owl Post to talk about the creation of the preserve and the hummingbird garden, and to guide with bird sightings. We’ll have a bird craft table for kids. Free parking in Lot 6! Drop by any time that morning. See you there! Cin-Ty Lee Rice Student Birding Club Cassidy B Johnson

It's a welcome Wednesday! Please help us welcome Amy to the GCBO research team! Amy is originally from the northeast, ...
10/21/2026

It's a welcome Wednesday! Please help us welcome Amy to the GCBO research team! Amy is originally from the northeast, has a master's degree in wildlife management from Wisconsin, and comes to us with extensive shorebird experience. She will be taking over for biologist Caleb, who has decided to move on to bigger and better things after spending several years leading our beach-nesting birds and non-breeding shorebirds monitoring programs.

Please drop her a Texas hello, and help us wish Caleb the best of luck in his future endeavors! If you haven't had the chance to say bye to Caleb, he'll be at the volunteer dinner tomorrow night (RSVP by calling our office or shooting us an email) and in the office part time until the end of the month.

All banding was conducted under a federally authorized Bird Banding Permit issued by the U.S. Geological Survey's BBL and a TPWD Scientific Research Permit.

Day 12 Oaxaca, MX birding trip… on the way home! Lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel… and not at 5:30am!! 😬. Alberto ...
10/19/2026

Day 12 Oaxaca, MX birding trip… on the way home!

Lovely buffet breakfast at the hotel… and not at 5:30am!! 😬. Alberto “el Trogon” loaded us up one last time for the airport. Everything went nice and smooth.

I want to thank Eric Martinez with Mexico-Birding for guiding us on this epic tour! He is an amazing bird and cultural guide, and organizer! And just a lovely human being! Thank you!!

And a huge thanks to the wonderful folks that joined us and explored Oaxaca for 12 days! It was a blast to bird and have fun with you all! Thanks for your conservation support!

Thank you everyone that shared their trip photos for these posts! I think everyone shared something!
Most of the landscape pics are Martin’s but most bird pics are from others. Thanks!

If you are interested in GCBO trips please check out our website.
https://www.gcbo.org/connect/gcbo-bird-tours/

Oaxaca 2026 Birding Trip - a nice group of bird photos from a participant! Thank you Roy!
10/19/2026

Oaxaca 2026 Birding Trip - a nice group of bird photos from a participant! Thank you Roy!

Day 11! And the last official day with birding on our GCBO Oaxaca, Mexico birding tour with Eric Martinez - Mexico-Bird...
10/18/2026

Day 11! And the last official day with birding on our GCBO Oaxaca, Mexico birding tour with Eric Martinez - Mexico-Birding!

If there was anything constant on this trip, it was breakfast… 5:30am. And then off to birding. Today, we birded another section of the National Park surrounding Huatulco. Laid-back and easy although it got warm and muggy quickly. But who cares when you get the most awesome birds.

White-throated Magpie-Jays, Roadside Hawks, Hook-billed Kite, Red-breasted Chat, Nutting’s Flycatcher, Lineated Woodpecker, Turquoise-crowned Hummingbird, and more!

After a few hours of enjoying Huatulco birding for the last time, we headed back to the hotel to check out and load up, and on the road back to Oaxaca city. About 6 to 7 hour drive. There is a new highway from Huatulco to Oaxaca, but it isn’t quite ready yet so part of it was driving on a rather bumpy “road”. But we had great stops along the way, including a delicious lunch in Rosedal, and adding one last bird to our trip list… a Wood Stork! Which brought us to 244 species for the trip.

Tomorrow we will load up in that van for the last time… for this trip… and head to the airport. There might be a little impromptu birding here at the hotel before that happens. And breakfast is not until 7am!! 😄 One last post for this trip should happen sometime tomorrow… stay tuned for some cool bird photos!

Day 10 of Oaxaca birding tour! The Harbor was still closed this morning, so we went birding on the beautiful Copalita be...
10/17/2026

Day 10 of Oaxaca birding tour!
The Harbor was still closed this morning, so we went birding on the beautiful Copalita beach and the river estuary. We found some really nice birds here, including Collard Plovers , before Eric got the phone call from the captain that our pelagic was now a go!

We only went out about 8 miles from shore because the continental shelf is so close to shore here. We had at least 11 true pelagic species. We also had both Red and Red-necked Phalaropes. We also saw Green, Olive Ridley, and a huge Loggerhead, some nesting on Texas beaches. And a quick look at a Pantropical Spotted Dolphin.

We went back to the hotel for some rest after an absolutely delicious lunch, at a restaurant on the beach near the Harbor. It’s always a crowd favorite!  We had a long siesta before we headed out to look for owls at night. We were successful with seeing Mottled owls. Heard a distant Northern Potoo as well as a Pacific screech-owl.

Back at the hotel we had a late and light dinner. Ready for tomorrow, as we bird for a few hours in the morning and then check out of the hotel here in Huatulco, and start the long drive back to Oaxaca City. Stay tuned for that!

Day 9 of Oaxaca, Mexico birding trip! What a soggy day! Today was supposed to be the pelagic day at sea, but that littl...
10/16/2026

Day 9 of Oaxaca, Mexico birding trip!

What a soggy day! Today was supposed to be the pelagic day at sea, but that little tropical storm out on the ocean said no. So we switched today around and headed back into the mountains at about 3500 feet, birding our way up… in the rain! Despite the rain, we were able to get some good birds, including the main target of Northern Emerald Toucanets! They were high in a tree, and they were as wet as we were, but we saw them!
Some other good birds from today included Golden-crowned Warbler, Mexican Hermit, Spot-breasted Oriole, White-lored Gnatcatcher, Scrub Euphonia, Hepatic Tanager, Blue Bunting, and rare for the area Mississippi Kites! It’s always also fun to see “our” neotropical migrants on their wintering grounds including warblers, tanagers, and flycatchers.

For lunch, we arrived at Pluma Hidalgo coffee plantation and enjoyed a delicious mole chicken and coffee flan. And of course, the best coffee! All shade grown and bird friendly. We arrived in style in five Tuc tucs… the small motorcycle based very popular taxi type vehicles. So much fun! We were able to watch a demonstration about coffee production and buy fresh coffee beans or ground to take with us! The food is great. The coffee is amazing. The people are wonderful!

Afterwards we started heading down the mountain and the skies cleared just a little bit so we stopped and birded a couple of places. Back to the hotel to get cleaned up a little bit before dinner. Tonight we enjoyed a wonderful Thai restaurant owned by Eric’s friends here in Huatulco, called Mercader. Deliciosa!

We are hoping the weather holds up for a boat ride tomorrow… let’s see what happens! 



Day 8! Our fabulous Oaxaca Mexico trip continues!Today we spent birding the forests around Huatulco. After another deli...
10/15/2026

Day 8! Our fabulous Oaxaca Mexico trip continues!
Today we spent birding the forests around Huatulco. After another delicious breakfast we headed to a private preserve owned by a local family who stopped farming it 50 years ago, and let it returned to nature. Today it is a prime example of conservation and eco tourism. We had an excellent morning birding this very birdy place: Las Ninfas Ecoturistica

West Mexican Chachalaca’s, Ruddy Ground Doves, Groove-billed Anis, Turquoise-crowned Hummingbirds, Gray Hawk, Zone-tailed Hawks, Pacific Screech-owl, Ferruginous Pygmy-owl, Citroeline Trogon, Golden-cheeked Woodpeckers, Lilac-crowned Amazons, White-fronted Amazons, Orange-fronted Parakeets, Northern-beardless Tyrannulet, White-fronted Magpie-jays, Gray-breasted Martins, Russet-Naped Wren, White-lored Gnatcatcher, Yellow-winged Cacique, Red-breasted Chat, a Orange-breasted Buntings! And so much more!

We had the privilege of eating a traditional lunch at this preserve, and watch some amazing videos from their game cameras! Jaguarundis, Ocelots, and so many cool animals!

It was a hot and humid day so we headed back to the hotel for a siesta! Regrouping late afternoon and headed to one of the tracts of the national preserves. Huatulco is situated right next to National Refuges and is a very green city! They use gray water to water all the green public spaces.

We had great looks at our number one target bird there. Colima Pygmy-Owl! We also had killer looks at Russet-crowned Motmots. We briefly saw a Crane Hawk fly over and heard Gray Hawks calling all around. A Ivory-billed Woodcreeper made a quick appearance as well!

Back to the hotel and another amazingly delicious dinner rounded out the day!

What will tomorrow bring!!

Day 7 of our Oaxaca birding trip. We left our wonderful cabin early this morning, birding our way down the mountain.  ...
10/14/2026

Day 7 of our Oaxaca birding trip.
We left our wonderful cabin early this morning, birding our way down the mountain.  Thera was a lot of saying goodbye to cabin cat and grounds dog!

We made a few stops and got some great birds, including Mexican Hermit, Blue- capped Hummingbird, Olivaceous Woodcreeper, Eye-Ringed Flatbill, Tufted Flycatcher, Greater Pewee, Boat-billed Flycatcher, Golden Vireo, Great Black Hawk, Bat Falcon, Happy Wren, and Cinnamon Hummingbird! And many more!

We had a fabulous lunch along the road, and continued our way to Huatulco, where we will stay for four days. What a fabulous hotel, and a great dinner!

Tomorrow we start birding around this area, so stay tuned!

Day 6 of our GCBO Oaxaca Mexico birding tour! Today we got to sleep in for 30 minutes! Breakfast at 6 AM! Followed by s...
10/13/2026

Day 6 of our GCBO Oaxaca Mexico birding tour!
Today we got to sleep in for 30 minutes! Breakfast at 6 AM! Followed by some of the best window birding ever, right from the restaurant looking out over the cabin grounds. We had some great birds, including Flame-colored Tanager.

Afterwards we leisurely strolled the grounds and got some great birds! The highlight was probably one of the biggest target species for the trip… the Bumblebee Hummingbird! We saw two males courting a female and chasing each other around!  And we made a new friend… who wanted our full attention… pet, finger chewing, playing with sticks… and chasing back-and-forth. The cutest ever little puppy who followed us around. His mama and she lives on the grounds.

We loaded up in our trusty van and Alberto drove us up the mountain. We birded several stretches of mountain roads in a few different locations and we saw some awesome birds. Mexican Violetear, heard a close White-faced Quail-Dove, Garnet-throated Hummingbird, several more Bumblebee Hummingbirds, Red Warblers, Ruddy-capped Nightingale-Thrush, and Common Chlorospingus.
But the star of the show was the four White-throated Jays! The last 2 put on an amazing show… and with a bird seldom seen or seen well… we even managed killer photos! What a bird and sight!

San Jose Del Pacifico is a well-known town for its international mushroom festival. And shall we say… ”happy” mushrooms 🍄! We enjoyed seeing mushrooms statues all over as we drove back to lunch. Having had five days of early starts, we took a long siesta after a delicious lunch.

Late afternoon with a good drive up the mountain in a different direction we found another wonderful target bird, the Hooded Yellowthroat, up on a hillside in an abandoned cornfield. We then explored some other mountain roads until fog and darkness overtook us.

As mentioned in previous posts the state of Oaxaca is known for wool products, such as the woven rugs. Just before ending our birding for today, a young lady came out from her house, and offered to sell us her handmade wool products. Several of us bought handmade mushrooms, toys, and a lovely hat. Supporting locals is the best thing you can do when traveling.

We ended the day with a lovely mole and chicken dinner, followed by homemade cake, and hat modeling from the gift shop. 😄 What a day!

Tomorrow morning we pack up and bird our way down the mountain, to eventually end up on the coast in Huatulco. Stay tuned for more adventures and birds! 

Address

299 Highway 332 W
Lake Jackson, TX
77566

Opening Hours

Monday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Tuesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Wednesday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Thursday 8:30am - 4:30pm
Friday 8:30am - 4:30pm

Telephone

+19794800999

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