What is The Most Rare Native Bird in Texas?

The State Bird of Texas has been the Northern Mockingbird since 1927.  And while we love this medium-sized songbird, its dull gray top with paler underparts isn't exactly striking to the eye.

You can see the white outer tail feathers of the Northern Mockingbird on its long tail and white wing patches while it is in flight. But, yeah, not that exciting. Dull gray to pale to white is not exactly eye-catching. Certainly not as eye-catching as the rarest native bird to Texas.

What is The Most Rare Native Bird in Texas?

Have you ever heard of the Attwater Prairie Chicken? At one point it nearly went extinct, and still today, it is one of the rarest and most peculiar-looking birds in the U.S.

"The Attwater’s prairie chicken once ranged across coastal Texas and Louisiana and numbered close to one million. But the environment it requires has been paved over and plowed up, and today less than 1 percent of its habitat remains."

Unless you've visited the Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge outside of Houston, you've likely never seen one of these strange-looking birds. Today, fewer than two hundred of the birds are left in the wild, and the refuge in southeast Texas is the only place where the public can encounter them.

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If you'd like to visit these rare birds, it'd be a great family trip this summer.

Attwater Prairie Chicken National Wildlife Refuge visitor center is now open to the public. Visiting hours are between 8:00 am and 3:30 pm Tuesdays through Saturdays from November to May. From June to October the visitor center is open from Thursdays through Saturdays.