El Paso and Hudspeth Counties

Column 1. The first column is a blended list of the most recent accepted eBird observations from both El Paso and Hudspeth counties. While the column 2 and 3 lists here go slightly outside the political boundaries of Texas into southeastern New Mexico, the list in column 1 would only include species found within the Texas political borders in those two counties.

The current eBird list in column 1. has had at least some review of unusual birds, either by eBird reviewers or the Texas Bird Records Committee. Any unusually rare species found on older, historical lists may be left off the eBird list if there is no current documentation. For example, Elegant Trogon was found on one of the older lists. I didn't add it to the main list because it's possible the species was seen in SE New Mexico and would have never been reviewed for Texas. Other reasons for leaving a historical bird sighting off the current accepted eBird list may be because it was determined to be an introduced species (Northern Bobwhite) or possibly because it went through some phylogenetic split and the original name was no longer used. I took some liberties with a few of the name changes and simply made a best-case judgement. In the case of "Traill's" Flycatcher, for example, I presumed a sighting of Willow Flycatcher because geography dictated that would be more likely than Alder Flycatcher in west Texas.

Column 2. - The first list is from "Birds of El Paso County, Texas, and Adjacent Areas, 8th edition, May 2003 (James N. Paton, John H. Sproul Jr., and Barry R. Zimmer). While this list includes some of southeastern New Mexico to the west, there are very few species, if any, that would be specific to New Mexico. The eastern boundary of this checklist is about one-half of Hudspeth County.

Column 3. - The second list is "Birds of El Paso County, Texas and Adjacent Areas, 6th Edition, June 1980 (Joe DiPasquale, Jeff Donaldson, John A. Sproul, Jr., Barry R. Zimmer and Kevin J. Zimmer)." This region appears identical to the 2003 list.

Column 4. The third list is from "Checklist of Birds, Region of El Paso, Texas, 3rd Edition, 1959 (Lena G. McBee, Mary Belle Keefer and Roy Fisk)." This list also radiates into the southeastern section of New Mexico, into the foothills of the Sacramento Mountains. On the surface, it appears to be a region similar or perhaps identical to the 1980 and 2003 list.

Column 5. This annotated list is from a 1940 scientific abstract entitled "Birds of the Guadalupe Mountain Region of Western Texas," by Thomas D. Burleigh and George H. Lowery Jr. This particular list is likely one of the first bird checklists from the Guadalupe Mountains, and it is largely specific to a smaller geographic range that may include habitat in only Hudspeth and Culberson counties.

Several other available checklists for El Paso and vicinity, including most of the ones here, can be found at http://www.trans-pecos-audubon.com/bird-checklists.html . These are printable checklists in a PDF format.