ABA BIRDFINDING GUIDES

A Birder's Guide to the Rio Grande Valley
Mark W. Lockwood, William B. McKinney, James N. Paton, Barry R. Zimmer
Reprinted with corrections 2003
280 pages, paper
ISBN 1-878788-18-3
Out of Print

Weaving and etching its way from the snowmelt of southern Colorado, the Rio Grande winds through the mountains and deserts of the Southwest bringing life to an arid land before reaching the gulf of Mexico. No matter how inhospitable the climate west of the Pecos River might appear to humans, many bird species have adapted to it—birders seeking these hardy species find ways of coping as well.

A Birder's Guide to the Rio Grande Valley is designed to help you locate not only the specialty birds of the Rio Grande Valley—those not occurring elsewhere in North America—but also to find the more common birds of the region.

Birdfinding instructions begin in the wonderland of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, detailing routes designed to help you make the most of your visit at any time of year. Forty-seven detailed maps augment the route instructions.

The guide deviates from the river corridor to cover the Edwards Plateau, the Davis Mountains, the Pecos Valley, and Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks. Special attention is given to the regional hotspots: Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Falcon Dam, Big Bend National Park, the Davis Mountains, and El Paso/Las Cruces, New Mexico, area.

A 588-species Birds of the Region section covers the relative abundance, normal range, and proper habitats for each species. Also included are lists of butterflies and other vertebrates, from lizards to bats to the seldom-seen nightime predators.

Originally written by James A. Lane (1971), and updated by Harold R. Holt, this guide, now in its 3rd edition, has been thoroughly revised by four local experts, each contributing the knowledge gained from years of field experience in the three major regions covered: the Lower Valley, the Trans-Pecos, and the Edwards Plateau.