Passport to Texas

Passport to Texas from Texas Parks and Wildlife

Located on the Bolivar Peninsula, High Island is migratory stopover habitat for neo-tropical birds.

I always tell people it’s kind of like you go on vacation and you have to stop and get gas and get food, and it you can’t stop you can’t get where you’re going. So, for these birds, stopover habitat like High Island is very important.

Winnie Burkett is sanctuaries manager for Houston Audubon, and says the habitat on High Island—which, by the way, isn’t an island—concentrates birds.

It’s called High Island because it’s the surface expression of a salt dome. High Island is 38 feet high, and it’s the highest point between Mobile Bay and the Yucatan Peninsula. And, high habitat is not common on the coast, so we have woods where all around High Island is salt marsh. And that really concentrates the woodland birds here at High Island.

Not only is High Island a great place for the birds, it’s a great place for birders.

If they want to see a lot of different species, High island is a really great place for them to come, because they’re all concentrated in one place. Where they’d have to travel all over, eastern north America to see the 28 varieties of warblers we get here. They can come here on a good day and see most of them.

We have more birding information at passporttotexas.org.

That’s our show… we had help today from Tom Harvey…For Texas Parks and Wildlife…I’m Cecilia Nasti.

High Island--Migratory Stopover Play Now | Play in Popup | Download