Skip to main content Skip to navigation
Home
Today's Show: Rhinoceros Hornbill
Rhinocerous Hornbill
Listen In
  • Today's Show
  • Listen
    • Daily Shows
    • Threatened
    • Grouse
    • BirdNote Presents
    • How to Listen
  • Explore
    • Field Notes
    • Sights & Sounds
    • Birdwatching
    • Resources for Educators
  • How to Help Birds
    • At Home
    • In Your Community
    • Success Stories
  • About
    • The BirdNote Story
    • The Team
    • Partners
    • For Radio Stations
    • Funding
    • Contact Us
    • FAQs
    • Support BirdNote
  • Donate

Winter Sounds of the Lower Rio Grande

Experience the subtropics!
Subscribe to the Podcast
Download
  • Share This:
  • Share to Facebook
  • Share to Twitter
  • Share to Email
Northern Beardless Tryannulet
© Muriel Neddermeyer

In the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where the Rio Grande River borders Mexico, birds commonly found in Central America reach their northern-most range. Here you can find fascinating birds like this Northern Beardless Tyrannulet, a tiny flycatcher with a long name! You’ll also see colorful Green Jays, secretive White-tipped Doves, beautiful Audubon’s Orioles, boisterous Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks, and raucous Plain Chachalacas.

  • Full Transcript
  • Credits

BirdNote® 

Winter Sounds of the Lower Rio Grande

Written by Bob Sundstrom

This is BirdNote.

[Sounds of Northern Beardless Tyrannulet and Plain Chachalacas] 

Winter in the subtropics... We’re in the lower Rio Grande Valley of Texas, where the Rio Grande borders Mexico. And here, birds commonly found in Central America reach their northern-most range. 

A Green Jay, the very picture of a tropical bird feathered in green, yellow, and blue, offers its varied voices [Green Jay, sample of sounds]. Now a secretive White-tipped Dove calls eerily from the forest floor [White-tipped Dove].

A tiny flycatcher with a very long name - a Northern Beardless Tyrannulet [song of Northern Beardless Tyrannulet] sings a distinctive refrain. Nearby, an Audubon’s Oriole seems to sound like a child just learning to whistle [song of Audubon’s Oriole].

Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks demonstrate that they are indeed ducks that whistle [whistle of Black-bellied Whistling-Ducks], while the large, chicken-like Plain Chachalaca shouts loud enough to drown out all others [calls of Plain Chachalacas].

But as night falls and the subtropical birds go quiet, an Eastern Screech-Owl trills [call of Eastern Screech-Owl].

The bird sounds for today’s show come from the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. For BirdNote, I’m Mary McCann. 

[call of Eastern Screech-Owl].

###

Bird sounds provided by The Macaulay Library of Natural Sounds at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Song of White-tipped Dove [3970] recorded by W.A. Thurber; song of Northern Beardless Tyrannulet [40558]; call of Plain Chachalaca [130903] by Gerrit Vyn; call of Green Jay [69970] P. Schwartz; call of Green Jay [69971] by P. Schwartz; song of Audubon’s Oriole [105567] by G.A. Keller; whistle of Black-bellied Whistling-Duck [58943] by P. Schwartz; call of Easter Screech-Owl [20434] by H. McIsaac. 

BirdNote’s theme music was composed and played by Nancy Rumbel and John Kessler.

Producer: John Kessler

Executive Producer: Chris Peterson

© 2014 Tune In to Nature.org  January 2017/2020  Narrator: Mary McCann

ID#  lowerriogrande-01-2014-01-14lowerriogrande-01b

Bob Sundstrom
Writer
Mary McCann
Narrator
Muriel Neddermeyer
Photographer
Support More Shows Like This
Tagsecology sound South Texas

Related Resources

Learn more about birding in the Rio Grande ValleyCheck out the Rio Grande Valley Birding FestivalAudubon's Oriole - More at All About BirdsBlack-bellied Whistling-Duck - More at All About BirdsGreen Jay - More at All About BirdsNorthern Beardless Tyrannulet - More at AudubonPlain Chachalacas - More at All About BirdsWhite-tipped Doves - More at All About Birds

More About These Birds

Green Jay (Cyanocorax yncas)

Cyanocorax yncas

Plain Chachalaca (Ortalis vetula)

Ortalis vetula

Northern Beardless-Tyrannulet (Camptostoma imberbe)

Camptostoma imberbe

Sights & Sounds

Related Field Notes

December 18, 2017

What does it take to record the world’s birds?

By Gerrit Vyn
February 14, 2013

Converting Pastures to Forest in Hawai'i

By John Kessler
Last November while vacationing on Hawaii’s Big Island, I had the chance to spend a day with Jack

Birds connect us with the joy and wonder of nature. By telling vivid, sound-rich stories about birds and the challenges they face, BirdNote inspires listeners to care about the natural world – and take steps to protect it.

Support BirdNote

  • Daily Shows
  • Field Notes
  • BirdNote Presents
  • Sights & Sounds
  • About BirdNote
  • Contact BirdNote
Sign up for our newsletter!
  • BirdNote on Facebook
  • BirdNote on Twitter
  • BirdNote on Instagram

Copyright 2020. All rights reserved.

  • Privacy Policy