Photo by Joe Holman, BHS 1965
Brownsville is a World Birding Center
http://www.worldbirdingcenter.org/sites/brownsville/index.phtml
Click to see more of Joe's bird photos here
http://www.brownsville.org/bcvborg/visit.asp?show=7
By CRISELDA VALDEZ VILLARREAL
The Brownsville Herald
December 20, 2004 — For many, bird watching is a relaxing hobby but for the avid birdwatcher, their excitement levels shoot up when they capture an image or a glimpse of a rare bird.
The pinnacle, however, of bird watching is when the enthusiasts are able to collect a rare species, which would be for purposes of displaying in a museum.
That was the case on the morning of Dec. 10 at Camp Lula Sams.
Pat Burchfield, the deputy director and zoologist at the Gladys Porter Zoo, responded to the shouts of Carol DeMoss at the camp.
“(She) yelled at me that there was a bird out here that’s injured itself,” Burchfield, the curator of birds at the zoo. “What got me really excited, she’s an expert bird watcher and wildlife artist, and she couldn’t identify the bird.”
Burchfield, 61, said he “came running, because I knew it had to be something unusual.”
As he looked outside the window the bird had just crashed into, Burchfield, who has studied animals since he was 6 years old, said he also couldn’t identify the bird. When he walked outside to check on the condition of the bird, he realized the bird had not just dazed itself.
Sadly, the bird had not survived he crash.
As Burchfield looked at the bird, he realized, based on the large size of the beak, the bird was “some kind of grosbeak.”
He and DeMoss, the co-director and co-owner of Camp Lula Sams, began looking through U.S. bird field guides but did not find anything. Finally, Burchfield began looking through the Mexican Field Guide by Irby Davis — and he found what they were looking for.
The bird that lay inside the Henry Hall at the camp was a Crimson Collared Grosbeak – a bird native to Northern Mexico. The book they were looking through did not mention that the bird had entered the United States.
That’s when Burchfield and DeMoss called Jimmy Paz, Sabal Palm Audubon Center and Sanctuary manager, for verification of the bird discovery.
When the pair arrived at Paz’s office, he was already holding a copy of Sibleys Field Guide. He verified that the bird they were holding was indeed a female Crimson Collared Grosbeak. He said the book listed the bird as a “very rare visitor to the United States,” Burchfield said.
Although there are fewer than a dozen sightings of the bird on record, this was the year to see the Crimson Collared Grosbeak.
“In the western part of the Valley, there were several sightings,” Burchfield said.
But there was no specimen on record.
Paz is currently working with Mark Lockwood, with the Texas Bird Records Committee, to determine whether a specimen already exists in the United States.
“The first winter Crimson-collared Grosbeak recovered in Brownsville earlier this month is the first specimen for the United States,” Lockwood stated in an e-mail. “Prior to this winter, there have been eight documented occurrences of this species in Texas (and the US).”
Lockwood wrote that the first sighting was at the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park in the summer of 1974. The other seven sightings occurred between December 1985 and April 1988.
“This winter there have been at least five in Weslaco at the Frontera Audubon Sanctuary, two in Pharr, and the bird recovered in Brownsville,” he continued. “This is the largest known incursion of this species into the United States.”
But the number of sightings this year doesn’t affect what Burchfield felt upon realizing the treasure that had befallen him.
“It’s always exciting to see something rare,” Burchfield said of the find. “It’s another addition to why people all over the U.S. come to South Texas to see rare tropical birds that get into this area and to see those that are normally in the area.”
The Crimson Collared Grosbeak specimen will be displayed in a Texas A&M University museum in College Station, he said. Now, Burchfield and DeMoss are actively trying to find the bird’s mate at the former camp that is now a teaching camp and wildlife refuge. On Thursday, a male and female Crimson Collared Grosbeak were spotted near the Sabal Palms visitors center.
Paz said these sightings have been exciting for everyone in the birding community.
“This is exciting also because we have the Brownsville Birding Festival coming up in February,” Paz said. “I think it’s exciting because people will start seeing that we have special birds down here. It’s good for the economy, good for the birding community, good for everybody.”