South Texas Bird Photography, Part 3

Over the past couple of blogs, I've posted some of the birds I photographed in South Texas, in the Rio Grande Valley. In this third, and final post from South Texas, I have a few more birds to share with you.

The first bird of today's post is the Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura), not a new bird for me, but always an interesting bird:

And a nice "life" bird was seen on a couple of occasions, the beautiful Magnolia Warbler (Dendroica magnolia):

But one of the neatest birds, and another "lifer", was the Bronzed Cowbird (Molothrus aeneus). Although a bit difficult to see at times, one of the trademarks of this unusual bird is the intense red eyes, which is very obvious in this image of a male displaying for a nearby female:

At times, one of the males would do a "display dance", somewhat resembling a helicopter floating in the air:

Quite a bird to watch! In fact, nearly every species we saw were worthy of another trip to South Texas ... hmmm, is a seed planted? :o)

Post written by Jim Braswell of Show-Me Nature Photography