“Quiet … there it is! If you look under the branches at about 11 o’clock, you will see it,” Martha McLeod, a science teacher in the Rockport Independent School District, says to a handful of young students. It's a warm, overcast day in Port Aransas. “Hurry!” she softly shouts. “It's about to fly away.”
“I saw it,” exclaims 11-year-old Benjamin Almond as he works on the correct identification. His team’s rule is that the kids have to identify each bird, with no ID help from adults. After the sighting, the five children plus several parents jog down the path toward their next viewing spot.
Almond and his fellow young birders are two hours into their attempt at breaking their bird count last year of 85 as part of the 2025 Great Texas Birding Classic, sponsored by the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Over 90 million Americans participate in birding throughout the United States. Despite the average birder being 50 years old, there are many opportunities for young birders in Texas. In fact, youth bird-watching is on the rise. According to the National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation, bird-watching among 16- to 24-year-olds jumped from 4.7 million participants in 2016 to 10.8 million in 2022.
Birding is an affordable and accessible activity for young people to do alone as well as with their parents or guardians. The Great Texas Birding Classic, held each spring, gives youth an opportunity to compete against other youth or all-ages teams, and to build camaraderie, make friends and practice patience.
Beyond the Birding Classic, Texas cities such as Houston and Austin have youth birding clubs, and many state parks offer all-ages birding events. And, of course, youth can get started with backyard birds and a field guide.
“The beauty of birding is that birding can be for everyone no matter what level they are,” says Shelly Plante, nature tourism manager with TPWD. “Backyard connections are just as meaningful as someone that travels to go bird. It’s all about the connection to nature.”
Austin resident Lily Rerecich, 16, echoes Plante’s sentiments of how important birding in a backyard can be.
“We bird in our backyard all the time,” says Rerecich, who got her entire family into birding and helped create a bird sanctuary in her Austin backyard. “I started birding at age 7; my family was already into the outdoors. But now that I’ve been birding regularly, my 13-year-old brother birds with me as well, and my parents enjoy camping with us as we bird all over the state.”
Jessica Alexander
Jessica Alexander
Birding has helped Rerecich build up her confidence over the years; she has started a birding club at Ann Richards School for Young Women Leaders. “I hope to be an ornithologist one day and continue to not only educate others but to also protect and save our birds,” she says.
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Helsel of Austin got interested in birding when he had a “spark bird” moment with an ovenbird, a type of warbler. Helsel says his father got him started at the age of 8, and a strong community of mentors through Travis Audubon have helped his bird identifying skills.
“Birding is an amazing activity because it’s possible almost anywhere with minimal materials. I love how birding makes me look at and listen to the world in ways I never would have done,” says Helsel. “Watching the migrant birds come and go throughout the year has given me a new sense of the seasons, and many species have truly inspiring migrations to witness. It’s also a fun game to seek out rare species not yet on my list.”
Helsel’s favorite state park for birding is Estero Llano Grande State Park in the Rio Grande Valley. He also enjoys birding in West Texas and had an opportunity to bird there as part of Rio Diablo Birding Camp, hosted by Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Rio Diablo welcomes young birders ages 14 to 18 to experience Southwest Texas in early June and see the many species of birds that call the region home.
Helsel sees himself birding for many years to come. “Birding will connect me to places wherever I go, and I hope to spread the joy of birding to others as much as possible.”
McLeod, who was leading the Rockport youth birders, also led a team of sixth-graders in the Great Texas Birding Classic in 2024. The team of four birded by bicycle and explored the many wetlands, beaches, shorelines and prairies in the Port Aransas area. The team covered 27 miles via bicycle and counted 90 bird species.
A passionate STEM educator and lifelong naturalist, McLeod got into birding in 2010 when she was thinking of ways to repurpose a large, unfinished courtyard outside of her portable classroom. By motivating her students to collect and recycle over 10,000 pounds of aluminum, McLeod’s program won an award from the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The award afforded McLeod and her students the opportunity to transform a once-unused outdoor space into habitat for many of the area's migratory butterflies and birds, including hummingbirds and warblers.
With retirement looming, McLeod knows she wants to leave a lasting impression on each student she is able to educate. “When I retire, what legacy do I want to leave behind? You teach kids to be a better part of the community. Then, those kids become adults that care about conservation and a better future. That’s a legacy I can stand behind.”
