Houston Audubon is pleased to announce the launch of its new conservation license plate which will raise money to protect birds and their habitat. The plate is sponsored by Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) and can be put on Texas-registered vehicles, trailers and motorcycles.

You may have heard the great news – Houston is one of the first four cities to receive the Bird City Texas designation! But what does this mean for the city, for Houstonians, and for the wildlife that also calls Houston home? This designation demonstrates that our community cares about birds, habitat, and conservation. To receive the Bird City designation applicants were required to describe what actions they have taken to support birds and wildlife in their cities.

Mural painting underway at the Hulsey Coastal Operations Center (COOP) in High Island. Special thanks to Doug Hiser for this beautiful work of art, and thanks to his Houston Gateway Academy students for their help painting! We can’t wait for y’all to come see it this spring.

See a gallery with more photos showing the completion of the project.

Houston is one of four Texas cities honored with the Bird City designation from Audubon Texas and Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s inaugural Bird City Texas certification program. This new, community-focused certification program has been created to help people protect birds and their habitats.

As a bird artist, I shall never paint this curlew from life. No one can, in all probability. Bringing an extinct bird back to life through scientific illustration was my way of paying homage.

My personal interest stemmed from my husband, T. Ben Feltner, who re-discovered the Eskimo Curlew on Galveston Island, March 22, 1959, along with his friend Dudley A. Deaver. This sighting shocked the ornithological world and encouraged research for further evidence that the birds might have a viable population. Despite diligence on the part of many searchers along the Texas Coast, the last confirmed record in the contiguous U.S. occurred when two birds appeared on Galveston Island in late March 1962 and left a few weeks later in early April. Formerly one of the most abundant birds in North America, the Eskimo Curlew is now listed as Critically Endangered on the IUCN Red List but is thought to be extinct.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner alongside Houston Audubon’s Executive Director, Helen Drummond, proclaimed the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron as the official Bird of Houston. In an effort to increase awareness of the birds around us, Houston Audubon coordinated the Bird of Houston contest, where Houstonians voted on their favorite local bird through a series of bracket rounds. Over 60 bird species were originally nominated, leading to the final round which pitted the Attwater’s Prairie-Chicken against the Yellow-crowned Night-Heron.

Houston Audubon’s Winters Bayou Bird Sanctuary has been awarded a $48,600 grant by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission through The National Recreational Trails Fund (NRTF). Houston Audubon partnered with the American Youthworks Texas Conservation Corps to plan and build a new 900-foot trail, renovate one mile of storm-damaged trail, add 500 feet of boardwalk, and install trail markers for easier navigation.

Houston Audubon and Kathrine G. McGovern unveiled the $2.3 million nature tourism enhancement plan for Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary in High Island on Saturday, April 6, 2019. The project will feature the Kathrine G. McGovern Canopy Walkway—an elevated viewing experience through the forest canopy and sub-canopy. The plans also include renovating a 1920’s brick building known as the pump house, and new restrooms. The renovated pump house will be used as a visitor center and gathering space. The project is expected to be completed in time for Spring Migration, 2020.

Over 75 people attended the unveiling ceremony for the sculpture honoring the memory of Flo Hannah. The event was held at the Edith L. Moore Nature Sanctuary on Friday, January 25, 2019.

Flo Hannah, Houston Audubon Conservation Specialist, passed away on January 10, 2018. Flo will be missed beyond measure and remembered always for her steadfast dedication to the plants, birds, and people of the Texas Gulf Coast. Flo was our dear friend and colleague. She was a champion of endangered coastal prairies and a remarkable advocate for nature. She was loved and respected by the many people she encountered. Houston Audubon feels a significant loss and will miss Flo’s passion, expertise, and sweet humor. We plan to honor Flo and her remarkable contributions to Houston Audubon and to our community, and we will share details when we have them. May we all carry her prairie fire forward.

This is a follow-up with a positive action result from the article "Bird strike into Galveston high-rise leaves hundreds dead" that described an event which occurred on May 3, 2017.

The event occurred Wednesday, May 3 and was reported by Dana Guthrie and Harvey Rice in the Houston Chronicle.

Richard Gibbons, Conservation Director, and Sarah Flournoy, Bird-friendly Communities Program Manager, were quoted in the article providing an explanation of how this kind of event can occur and solutions for how to prevent this in the future. Click the link to read the full article.

Houston Audubon was awarded $239,800 to create two new colonial waterbird nesting islands and enhance existing nesting habitat for thousands of birds that depend on this important habitat. The Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary Rookery Island Restoration and Enhancement project located on the Upper Texas Coast at High Island is part of a landscape-scale effort to restore lost colonial waterbirds impacted by the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The project is made possible with funding from the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund administered by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).