Wildlife & Habitat

The Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge has more documented bird species than any other refuge in the United States!  The 413 species recorded here include birds that cannot be seen anywhere else in the country.  Situated on the border between the United States and Mexico, the Refuge is host or home to migrating birds that funnel through the tip of Texas in an effort to avoid flying too far east, over the Gulf Coast, or too far west, over the desert.  In addition, many species reach their northernmost range here so you can see birds here that cannot be found elsewhere in the United States. 

Ocelot mother and her kitten. Photo taken by USFWS Trip Camera.

Laguna Atascosa NWR is also home to 42 mammal, 33 reptile, and 10 amphibian species as well as numerous fish and invertebrate species.   Eleven federally-listed endangered or threatened species, including the ocelot, aplomado falcon, and Kemp’s ridley sea turtle, are found on the Refuge. 

Altamira Oriole. Photo by USFWS.

The Refuge provides a variety of habitats which supports an incredible diversity of wildlife.  Tamaulipan thornscrub, a dense brush habitat, is home to such creatures as the ocelot, javelina, green jay, and plain chachalaca.   This habitat type is a thorny entanglement of tree and shrub species, such as Texas ebony, granjeno, colima, and snake-eyes.

Aplomado falcons, Botteri’s sparrows, and black-tailed jackrabbits prefer the coastal prairie habitat found on the Refuge.  Coastal prairie consists of a variety of salt-tolerant grasses and halophytes, which grow in the lower elevations on the Refuge.  An occasional yucca and prickly pear standout in an otherwise open prairie landscape.   

Zebra longwing butterly. Photo by USFWS.

Wetlands are interspersed among the other habitat types of Laguna Atascosa NWR.  Freshwater ponds and resacas (oxbow lakes) support alligator and black-bellied whistling duck populations.  The more estuarine habitats are where wading birds and shorebirds commonly occur. 

Redhead ducks in the Lower Laguna Madre as seen from the Refuge. Photo by USFWS.

The Refuge has coastline along the Gulf of Mexico, as well as the Laguna Madre.  Beach, dune, and mudflat habitats dominate the South Padre Island Unit.  Here, peregrine falcons, piping plovers, and brown pelicans can be found on barrier island habitats. The Kemp’s ridley, green and loggerhead sea turtles are some of the species that can be found cruising the waves. Along the Laguna Madre, large concentrations of ducks forage on the sea grasses that grow in this hypersaline lagoon.  Eighty percent of the global redhead duck population winters in the Lower Laguna Madre and Laguna Atascosa NWR provides them with an important fresh water source.