The Rio Grande International Study Center (RGISC), the City of Laredo, and Monte Mucho Audubon have partnered with District 3 City Council member Mercurio Martinez III, Onyx Real Estate, and Audubon Texas for the 10th Annual Laredo Birding Festival.
The three-day event, which is headquartered at La Posada Hotel in historic downtown Laredo, offers birders from far and near the hospitality for which Laredo is well known and the wealth of native and migratory avian species of the river and brushland eco systems.
Registration begins at noon on Wednesday, February 2. The festival closes Saturday, February 5, as Romey Swanson, director of Audubon-Conservation Texas, keynotes the finale banquet at La Posada with “Celebrating Texas’ Bird Diversity and the Role of Stewardship in Bird Conservation.”
Visiting birders can sign up for local tours along the riverfront, creeks, and City parks as well as day-long tours to area ranches in Webb and Zapata counties.
Among the most prized sightings at earlier festivals have been the Morelet’s Seedeater, Scaled Quail, Gray Hawk, Audubon’s and Altamira Orioles, Green Parakeets, Muscovy Duck, Red-billed Pigeon, and Clay-colored Thrush.
Excursions are hosted by professional field guides and members of the local Monte Mucho Audubon Society.
In addition to the two festival favorites on ranches — “Bird ’til you Drop–Zapata County” and “Bird ’til you Drop–Webb County” — there are two different kayak trips being offered, “Floating Under Flyways I & II: Birding on the Rio Grande.”
An exciting component of the annual festival is the February 3 opening of the Birds of the Brush Art Exhibit at the Laredo Center for Arts, which features the art of students as well as accomplished local artists. The exhibit begins at 6 p.m. and is open to the public.
For further information and to see birds sighted locally, go to laredobirdingfestival.org.
