RARE Finds at Santa Margarita Ranch: A Birding Journey Through Day & Night!

Santa Margarita Ranch in the Rio Grande Valley of South Texas has been a major hotspot for rare birds. Brown Jays, a Bare-throated Tiger Heron, a Mottled Owl, multiple Rose-throated Becards, Muscovy Ducks, Morelet's Seedeater, Crane Hawk, Red-billed Pigeon, and more have all been seen on the property. It is restricted access to private tours, but thankfully we were able to join a day and night trip to try to find some of the rare birds that had been seen on the property. This video was filmed in early February.

Special thanks to our members Liz McQuaid, Sarah Coffey, Barbara Cole, Chris Slagle, Sally, Sarah, Scott Carmichael, and Laurie Borgers!

Gear Links (As Amazon Associates we do earn from qualifying purchases)

Panasonic LUMIX FZ80 4K Digital Camera
Used for most bird videos) - check credits as we do source some photos/videos elsewhere which is noted in the description

Cayer FP2450 Fluid Head Tripod, 75 inches Aluminium Tripod
Derek's lighter tripod

Andoer Video Tripod Aluminum Alloy 67 Inch
Derek's heavier tripod

Nikon D5300
Derek's vlogging and macro camera

Rode VideoMicPro Compact Directional On-Camera Microphone
Derek's external microphone for Nikon D5300

Connect with us!

Birds in cover image and birds at 3:24, 8:15, 8:28, and 13:00 by Ryan Rodriguez (Edited)

All other photos and videos by Derek and Ryan Sallmann

#Birding #BirdWatching #BadgerlandBirding

[NathanWebb-ch]

That was great footage of the brown jays and the mottled owl.

[OrnithologyInsights]

I really liked how you were able to capture great footage of the birds even though it was night time!

[BOSS-jiqh]

What an amazing spot! I really hope the landowners keep protecting this untouched wilderness.

[barbaracole]

The mottled owl is so cute and you got incredible footage of him! Glad you found so many cool birds! I love the green kingfisher.

[jurassic_hobbyonmyaltaccou]

How many birds are on both yours lifelist as of rightnow?

[Gigi.eq]

So cool that you found a mottled owl!!!

[wildasl]

I was there a couple weeks after you two visited. I had been keeping track of the Brown Jays for a while - it's a species I have wanted to see since I was a kid. It was wonderful to actually see them (seriously, I have had some major dips, ad I was worried they wouldn't show)! Thanks for sharing your trip - it was an excellent introduction for people thinking about visiting the ranch.

[protectedlands]

Love this channel 💕 you guys inspired me to get back into birding after years out of the hobby. Your tips are much appreciated and the fam and I are so thankful! We will be visiting the Rio Grand valley this spring and we’ll be able to support Santa Margarita Ranch due to this vid so thank you!!

[drakestallworth]

Made a trip last week to the Ranch. Unfortunately, the tiger heron disappeared the week before we got there. Also, the trip after us found a day roost for the mottled owl :/. But I can’t complain too much. I got 18 lifers on that trip, and 9 more the rest of the day. Hook-billed Kite and Elf Owl were the highlights of that day.

[Velotooslow]

If you ever come back to the valley, Muscovy ducks are everywhere in parks and not so rare for us here. But you can definitely get some good shots because they’re so used to people already at parks like Dean Porter Park in Brownsville!

[Hummingbirder]

Hi Derek and Ryan, what a nice whole day of birding the border area in Texas. (It's a bit odd that that dratted wall seems to stand tall on American soil and not on the border. Let's leave that subject, sorry to bring it up...)
I'm a bit curious what camera system you've changed to, Derek? Is it Olympus? I couldn't get a clean view.

[raymiemiller]

Nice! Mottled Owl is a species I've heard (in Costa Rica) but haven't managed to see.

[quinnhamilton]

Im pretty sure I saw the muscovy duck very frequently when I was in Miami, I didn't know they were that rare

[garymeredith]

You guys had 3 great birds there Those Black Backed Lesser Goldfinches are in both Arizona and Texas .

As for the Crested Cara😅cara's you guy's had you'll notice that the Female was so much bigger that Male was .

[verthosand]

What a great video thank you for sharing… absolutely love the entire trip! One question: At the 1 minute mark there is a what looks like an Amish cart or is that a bird blind?

[brighteyedbirding]

It's incredible that you saw that Mottled Owl! What an amazing bird! And the Bare-throated Tiger Heron! Is this the same one that your tour group spotted earlier this year? Or a different one?

Thanks for the awesome video as always!

[Oltoir]

I never thought about how one would track a bird seen in another country.. I assume it just counts for where you're standing, no matter where you see the bird?

[TheDutchBirder]

@Derek did you get a new camera and lens? 😮

[captain]

How can you afford to go on all these trips?? I’m so jealous!!

[TimWhalen-qvrs]

The Featured places link goes to a same named ranch in California.