This migratory green jay shows off brilliant plumage Green jay from another angle in McAllen, Texas Chachalacas scurry along Birdwatching Center at Bentsen -Rio Grande McAllen, Texas A Great Kiskadee , once known as the Kiskadee Flycatcher, snatches insects out of the air and small fish out of water. Buff-bellied hummingbirds are found, nowhere else in the continental United States.

Southwest Texas is an edgy sort of place, located on the edges of Mexico and the U.S., along the edge of the Rio Grande, at the edge of land and water,  just 70 miles west of the Gulf Coast, at the southern edge of the continent.  Here,  Mexican, Tejano, and Anglo cultures, English and Spanish, swirl and blend into a melange best known as Tex-Mex. This cultural potpourri makes for great food — think chimichangas, carne asada, and horchata. Here, fertile river delta irrigated farmland bumps up against native thorn…