280 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
b&w illustrations, maps

January 1999

This guide is designed to help you locate not only the specialty birds of the Rio Grande Valley—those not occurring elsewhere in North America—but also to find the more common birds of the region. Birdfinding instructions begin in the wonderland of the Lower Rio Grande Valley, detailing routes designed to help you make the most of your visit at any time of year. Forty-seven detailed maps augment the route instructions. The guide deviates from the river corridor to cover the Edwards Plateau, the Davis Mountains, the Pecos Valley, and the Guadalupe Mountains and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks.

Special attention is given to the regional hotspots: Santa Ana National Wildlife Refuge, Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley State Park, Falcom Dam, Big Bend National Park, the Davis Mountains, and the El Paso/Las Cruces and New Mexico areas. A 588-species Birds of the Region section covers the relative abundance, normal range, and proper habitat for each species.

Also included are lists of butterflies and other vertebrates, from lizards and bats to the seldom-seen nighttime predators. Originally written by James A. Lane (1971), and updated by Harold R. Holt, this guide, now in its third edition, has been thoroughly revised by four local experts, each contributing the knowledge gained from years of field experience in the three major regions covered: the Lower Valley, the Trans-Pecos, and the Edwards Plateau.