Everything you need to know about the ‘birdiest city in North America’

Binoculars and bird books in hand, each spring bird lovers from around the world flock to Nueces County, Texas, and its largest city, Corpus Christi, aka the Birdiest City in North America. It’s an annual pilgrimage for many; a once-in-a-lifetime adventure for others to visit some of the best birding venues in the world.

The tide of birds arriving in Corpus Christi swells in April and reaches its peak by the end of the month, which coincides with the Birdiest Festival in America.

If you go, here are few of the area’s best places to bird.

Port Aransas

“Springtime is the best time to see birds in Port Aransas and the coastal area of South Texas,” says Port Aransas birding enthusiast Ray Dillahunty.

Birding expert and author Greg Miller says the best birding anywhere in the United States could be found in April in Nueces County.

“He calculated that an active birder in Port Aransas could see 147 different species in a day,” Dillahunty says. “At the Birdiest Festival in 2019, there were two day trips that saw 150-plus species in one day in Nueces County.”

The town has a nature preserve, Charlie’s Pasture, that’s known for its birds. The preserve’s 1,714 acres of freshwater, brackish water and the Gulf’s saltwater offer the perfect recipe to entice songbirds, wading birds, raptors and others, including the rarest and most endangered of all: whooping cranes.

There are more than 750 different species of birds in North America – 500 of which can be seen around the Corpus Christi area.

“They are beautiful; they are ugly; they are common; they are rare,” Dillahunty says. “But they are all different in some small way.”

Birding happens every day around Port Aransas, but if you’re there on a Wednesday morning, join Dillahunty and his wife, Leslie Hoekstra, at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center for their weekly bird walks at 9 a.m.

Padre Island National Seashore

With more than 130,000 acres of wetlands, grasslands, dunes and sandy beaches, Padre Island National Seashore is the longest stretch of barrier island in the world.

There are well-paved roads and well-maintained walking trails that snake their way through the park. But first, visit the Malaquite Visitors Center (road signs point the way) and get the information you’ll need to find the best places to birdwatch, or arrange for a free guided tour.

Located within the National Seashore is Bird Island Basin, home to Laguna Madre, the sixth-saltiest body of water on Earth. Not only does that bring windsurfers from around the world, it’s also considered by the National Audubon Society to be one of the most important bodies of water for birding in the world. It’s a massive quilt of coastal wetlands, freshwater ponds and native grasslands that provide critical habitat for migratory raptors, songbirds, waterfowl, waterbirds and shorebirds, as well as endangered sea turtles.

For more information, log onto visitcorpuschristitx.org.

South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center

Located on 182 acres in Corpus Christi, the nature center is home to the Birdiest Festival in North America, an event that brings birders from more than a dozen states and several foreign countries for five days filled with birdwatching, educational activities and more.

At last year’s festival, attendees spotted 267 different species of birds, including a Northern Jacana, known as nature’s “lily walker” due to its unusual toes allowing it to walk on watery vegetation. Also spotted was an endangered violet-throated hummingbird.

The center is open daily from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. For more information, visit stxbot.org.

“One can be a ‘bird lister’ and keep track of each bird they have spotted. Or you can be a casual birder and just appreciate the birds in their natural habitat,” Dillahunty says of Corpus Christi. “Wherever you go, there will be birds, and it is fascinating to see the variety of colors, shapes, behaviors and habitats that birds thrive in.”

The annual Birdiest Festival in America happens at the South Texas Botanical Gardens & Nature Center in Corpus Christi April 22-26 this year, just in time for spring migration. This year’s keynote speaker is David Sibley, birding expert and author of “The Sibley Guide to Birds.”

For more information about the festival and for tickets ($35 per person), log onto birdiestfestival.org.