Kelp Gull photo by Nolan Walker
Here’s the quarterly update to the “Big as Texas eBird Counties” spreadsheet 
for Winter 2025-26
Highlights and notes from late December to early March
There were no new species added to the Texas list this quarter.
Texas Ornithology Society (TOS) Review Species added to counties for the quarter.
- Sulphur-bellied Flycatcher: El Paso (August 2025) – checklist
- Slaty-backed Gull: Galveston – checklist
- Trumpeter Swan: Randall – checklist
- Short-tailed Hawk: Webb (May 2025) – checklist
- Kelp Gull: Willacy – checklist
- Eskimo Curlew: Wise (Historical 1884) – checklist
- Crimson-collared Grosbeak: Zapata – checklist
- Trumpeter Swan: Zapata (Historical 1990), (was this the same one from Starr Co?) – checklist
Current state of Counties with Warbling Vireo (Eastern/Western) records (03/04/26)
- Counties remaining undifferentiated:
- Andrews, Briscoe, Castro, Childress, Coke, Crockett, Dallam, Deaf Smith, Ector, Edwards, Floyd, Glasscock, Hale, Hall, Hockley, Hutchinson, Lamb, Loving, Lynn, Mitchell, Moore, Motley, Potter, Reagan, Roberts, Sterling, Stonewall, Terry, Yoakum.
- Counties with both Eastern and Western in eBird:
- Cameron, Crosby, Dickens, Garza, Lubbock, Midland, Parmer, Presidio, Tom Green, Travis
- Map showing current distribution (select the “Eastern & Western Warbling Vireo” layer):
“Way out of range” county records:
- Bell: California Gull (historic:2022) – checklist
- Bexar: Bridled Tern (historic:2010) – checklist
- Brewster: Smith’s Longspur (historic:1986) – checklist
- Burnet: Lesser Black-backed Gull – checklist
- Fisher: Great Kiskadee (video) – checklist
- Galveston: Golden-cheeked Warbler (historic:1973) – checklist
- Gray: Lesser Black-backed Gull – checklist
- Hardeman: Crested Caracara – checklist
- Hemphill: Pileated Woodpecker – checklist
- Jeff Davis: Groove-billed Ani – checklist, Anhinga (historical:2008) – checklist
- Kleberg: Calliope Hummingbird – checklist
- Matagorda: Short-tailed Hawk – checklist, Black Phoebe – checklist
- Presidio: Anhinga – checklist
- Val Verde: Rusty Blackbird – checklist, Black-throated Blue Warbler (historical:1999) – checklist
- Webb: Crissal Thrasher – checklist
Continuous work in obscure counties:
- Carson: (3 historical species:1996) Terry Ferguson – Checklist
- Short-eared Owl was added to four counties: Brown, Coleman, Hardin, Rockwall
- American Crow provisional record Nueces – checklist
- Limpkin, this quarter, was added to Titus & Willacy Counties.
- Sharp-shinned Hawk was completed for all Texas Counties: Loving (historic:2017)
Species needed for just one county:
- Mallard: Medina
- Western Kingbird: Shelby
- Cedar Waxwing: Loving
- American Pipit: Hall
- Lark Sparrow: Newton
- Vesper Sparrow: Sabine
- Orchard Oriole: Castro
- Nashville Warbler: Moore
- Wilson’s Warbler: Franklin
For the quarter (last 3 months) eBirders added
106
total county ticks
starting at 74365 & ending at 74,471.
Safe county birding!
I keep track of County Big Days. So if your random spring birding day or Great Texas Birding Classic day is pretty big, maybe it will make it on the list on our Texas Century Club County Big Days page. Again I remind those of you who’d like, there’s a way to find your top county big days by downloading your data from eBird and upload it to Colton Robbins’ Birding Analytics browser app. It will spit out all your county top 3 big days, which you can compare to our County Big Day list at the Texas Century Club site, to see if it makes any of the Counties’ top 10.