Banking on Birding

HARLINGEN - Linda Stevens, who describes herself as a lifelong birder, made her first visit to the Rio Grande Valley this fall.

She and husband John attended the 15th annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival as part of their 25th wedding anniversary celebration.

For the State College, Pa., couple, it was a trip long overdue.

"We think it's fabulous," Stevens said of their Valley birding experience, which included Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge, Resaca de la Palma State Park and Boca Chica Beach.

"We've seen a lot of birds we wouldn't see unless we were here," she said, naming the green jay, Aplomado falcon, long-billed thrasher and chachalaca, as well as a Texas indigo snake.

"We would highly recommend (the Valley) to other people," she added.

The Stevenses learned what thousands of other birders already know: If you're looking for birds, you've come to the right place.

Ecotourism in general and birding in particular are major players in the Rio Grande Valley's economy.

According to Defenders of Wildlife, 200,000 ecotourists visit the Lower Rio Grande Valley annually, pumping $150 million into the economy.

"This really is the best and most popular birding place in the country," said Nancy Millar, vice president and director of the McAllen Convention and Visitors' Bureau. "That's not just braggadocio. That's a fact.

"Unfortunately, there's not a lot of statistical information about birding because gathering that information is expensive," she said. "We do have statistics gathered several years ago that the economic impact is $125 million a year."

Millar admits she was a little taken back by the dollars generated by ecotourism.

"I knew I would be a lot, but didn't know it would be over $100 million," she said.

Millar said information gathered during a survey of visitors arriving at Valley International Airport profiled ecotourists as evenly divided between men and women, with the largest age group just over 50 years old.

"That's mainly because that age group has more time on their hands," she said.

Millar went on to say birders usually have college degrees with many having post-graduate degrees. They also are financially well off.

And, more importantly, "they're willing to spend their money," Millar said.

She calls them the "ideal" tourists.

"They are going to be sensitive to their environmental impact, they're not going to litter and won't harm vegetation," she said.

Outside Texas, the largest percentage come from California, Arizona and Florida, "but we get them from everywhere," Millar said.

The foreign birder will spend $1,800 per person and domestic birders will spend about $800. But, Millar noted, those are old figures and probably too conservative for today.

Will and Barbara Hamilton of Kingwood, near Houston, spent five days in the Valley during the birding festival.

Will said the lure of Valley birding is "the wonderful diversity of birds, different places to go to, the weather and the friendly people who enjoy helping us learn about birds."

A retired chemist for Exxon-Mobil, Will said the couple spent "well over $1,000" on their Valley birding experience, including $80 a night for their motel room, $60 a day for food and the rest on incidentals, including gas because they drove to the Valley.

Both said it was money well spent.

"I was thinking about the question why do we come to the Valley," Will said. "Part of it is we're only six or eight hours away, but that's not the reason you come. That just makes it easier.

"You come because of the quality of what's here," Will continued. "There are so many wonderful birds that gather in one area and then you throw in a wonderful festival."

He told the story about a birder he met during a trip to the Edinburg Wetlands, which is part of the World Birding Center.

"There was a guy who had just flown in from Los Angeles," Will recalled. "He said ‘I saw that the weather was going to be nice,' so he told his wife "I'm gone, good-bye, I'm going down for a week.' "

Such is the lure of Valley birding.

BY THE NUMBERS

9,916: The number of registered species of birds worldwide, according to a 2204 article in USA today.

30: The percentage nature-based recreation has increased annually since 1987, according to the "Basics of Bird Conservation in the U.S." by Lynn Truilo.

47.8 million: The number of birders in the United States, according to the USF&WS.

84 million: The number of U.S. birders estimated by The National Survey on Recreation and the Environment, which makes it more popular than golf, hunting or fishing.

4: The number of Valley locations listed among the top 31 birding spots in the country in a vote by members of the American Birding Association.

1: The ranking of Texas for birding by members of the American Birding Association. The rest of the rankings, which includes Canadian provinces, includes: 2, Arizona; 3, Florida; 4, California; 5, Ontario; 6, New Jersey; 7, North Dakota; 8, Massachusetts; 9, North Carolina; 10, Delaware.

250: The present number of birding festivals in the United States, according to Audubon New York.

12: The number of U.S. birding festival in 1993, according to Audubon New York.