#txwildlife

[travelella]

Barred Owls in Colleyville Nature Center, Colleyville, Texas, United States

Stephanie LeBlanc

The barred owl, also known as the northern barred owl, striped owl or, more informally, hoot owl or eight-hooter owl, is a North American large species of owl.

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population increasing) 

Scientific name: Strix varia

Mass: 1.4 – 1.8 lbs

Class: Aves

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Strigidae

Genus: Strix

Habitat: Woodlands, wooded river bottoms, and wooded swamps. Favors mostly dense and thick woods with only scattered clearing, especially in low-lying and swampy areas. Most common in deciduous or mixed woods in southeast, but in north and northwest may be found in mature coniferous trees.

Diet: Typically a perch hunter, the barred owl is an opportunistic feeder that takes a variety of small mammals including rodents, young hares, bats, mink, weasels, squirrels, birds and even large insects. Where available, eats lizards, snakes, frogs, salamanders, and crawfish. 

[travelella]

Green Sea Turtle - The Port A Jetty, East Cotter Avenue, Port Aransas, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Chelonia mydas

Conservation status: Endangered (Population decreasing) 

Mass: 350 lbs (Adult) 

Class: Reptilia

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Cheloniidae

Genus: Chelonia; Brongniart, 1800

The green sea turtle, also known as the green turtle, black turtle or Pacific green turtle, is a species of large sea turtle of the family Cheloniidae. It is the only species in the genus Chelonia.

Green turtles are found worldwide primarily in subtropical and temperate regions of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian Oceans, and in the Mediterranean Sea. In U.S. Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico waters, green turtles are found in inshore and nearshore waters from Texas to Maine, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico.

[travelella]

Common tern - The Port A Jetty, East Cotter Avenue, Port Aransas, TX, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Sterna hirundo

Mass: 4.2 oz

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population decreasing)

Class: Aves

Family: Laridae

Genus: Sterna

Kingdom: Animalia

The common tern is a seabird in the family Laridae. This bird has a circumpolar distribution, its four subspecies breeding in temperate and subarctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. It is strongly migratory, wintering in coastal tropical and subtropical regions.

Common Terns nest on rocky islands, barrier beaches, and saltmarshes and forage over open waters. Terns often gather over warmer waters with high densities of American sand lance (a small fish) in the spring, and tuna that help scare up smaller fish in the fall.

[travelella]

Barred Owl in Colleyville Nature Center, Mill Wood Drive, Colleyville, Texas, USA

Stephanie LeBlanc

The barred owl, also known as the northern barred owl, striped owl or, more informally, hoot owl or eight-hooter owl, is a North American large species of owl.

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population increasing) 

Scientific name: Strix varia

Mass: 1.4 – 1.8 lbs

Class: Aves

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Strigidae

Genus: Strix

Habitat: Woodlands, wooded river bottoms, and wooded swamps. Favors mostly dense and thick woods with only scattered clearing, especially in low-lying and swampy areas. Most common in deciduous or mixed woods in southeast, but in north and northwest may be found in mature coniferous trees.

Diet: Typically a perch hunter, the barred owl is an opportunistic feeder that takes a variety of small mammals including rodents, young hares, bats, mink, weasels, squirrels, birds and even large insects. Where available, eats lizards, snakes, frogs, salamanders, and crawfish. 

[travelella]

Whistling ducks - Redhead Pond Wildlife Management Area, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Dendrocygninae

Family: Anatidae

Genus: Dendrocygna; Swainson, 1837

Kingdom: Animalia

Order: Anseriformes

Subfamily: Dendrocygninae; Reichenbach, 1850

The whistling ducks or tree ducks are a subfamily, Dendrocygninae, of the duck, goose and swan family of birds, Anatidae. In other taxonomic schemes, they are considered a separate family, Dendrocygnidae. 

Black-bellied whistling ducks are found in areas with a nearby supply of shallow fresh water, like marshes, swamps, lakes and ponds. They are also commonly found in farm fields, prairies and pastures.

They occur in Southern Texas, Louisiana, Arizona, Florida and rarely in other parts of the southern U.S.; also in Mexico, Central America, northern South America and the Caribbean.

[travelella]

American coot - Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Center, Ross Avenue, Port Aransas, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Fulica americana

Family: Rallidae

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population decreasing)

Mass: 16 oz (Adult) 

Class: Aves

Genus: Fulica

Order: Gruiformes

The American coot, also known as a mud hen or pouldeau, is a bird of the family Rallidae. Though commonly mistaken for ducks, American coots are only distantly related to ducks, belonging to a separate order.

American Coots are migratory birds native to the Nearctic region. During the summer, these birds are found centered around the freshwater lakes and ponds of the northern United States and southern Canada. During the winter they head to the southern portion of the United States from California to Florida.

American coots can be found in Ponds, lakes, marshes; in winter, also fields, park ponds, salt bays. For breeding season requires fairly shallow fresh water with much marsh vegetation.

[travelella]

Cedar waxwing - Blucher Park, South Tancahua Street, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Bombycilla cedrorum

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population increasing) 

Mass: 1.1 oz 

Family: Bombycillidae

Size: six to eight inches 

Class: Aves

Domain: Eukaryota

The cedar waxwing is a member of the family Bombycillidae or waxwing family of passerine birds. It is a medium-sized, mostly brown, gray, and yellow. Some of the wing feathers have red tips, the resemblance of which to sealing wax gives these birds their common name.

Cedar waxwing's can be found in open woodlands, fruiting trees, orchards; in winter, widespread, including towns. Breeding habitat is influenced by availability of fruiting trees and shrubs, often most common in "edge" situations, as along forest edges, streamsides, overgrown fields, edges of swamps, suburban yards.

[travelella]

American Oystercatcher - The Navy Base Spot, Ocean Drive, Corpus Christi, Texas, USA

Joshua J. Cotten

Scientific name: Haematopus palliatus

Conservation status: Least Concern (Population stable) 

Class: Aves

Mass: 1.2 lbs (Adult) 

Genus: Haematopus

Domain: Eukaryota

Family: Haematopodidae

The American oystercatcher, occasionally called the American pied oystercatcher, or PiruPiru, is a member of family Haematopodidae. Originally called the "sea pie", it was renamed in 1731 when naturalist Mark Catesby observed the bird eating oysters.

Oystercatchers can be found from the coasts of the northeastern U.S. down to Florida's Gulf Coast (Nol and Humphrey 1994). Florida is home to both a resident breeding population and a large wintering population of American oystercatchers. Oystercatchers can also be found on the Caribbean coast of Central America.

A boldly patterned shorebird with red-yellow eyes and a vivid red-orange bill, American oystercatchers survive almost exclusively on shellfish—clams, oysters, and other saltwater molluscs. Because of this specialized diet, oystercatchers live only in a narrow ecological zone of saltmarshes and barrier beaches.