We lost our friend Barbara Burkhardt in January. Barbara was a volunteer at GCBO for over 20 years and a great friend to our community. She was a lover of nature, and was particularly knowledgeable about plants.

Gulf Coast Bird Observatory is proud to announce the latest recipient of our Tropical Forests Forever Fund grant: Community Cloud Forest Conservation in Guatemala!

CCFC is using these funds for a project titled Habitat Restoration, Reforestation, and Protection for Golden-cheeked Warbler in central Guatemala. This one year project will restore critical habitat for neotropical birds with special regard to the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler (pictured here). This project will provide funds for tree planting, habitat restoration, and ecosystem enhancements specific to the needs of the Golden-cheeked Warbler, but will also help many other bird species.

The Tropical Forests Forever Fund is one of the ways that we at GCBO protect migratory birds when they are on their wintering grounds in Latin America. We are very pleased to be helping CCFC in their efforts to restore and reforest this important bird habitat.

If you would like to read more about Community Cloud Forest Conservation and their work alleviating poverty and protects forests, you can visit their website here.

Come birding with GCBO and our Executive Director, Martin Hagne! Have a great time birding, exploring, enjoying some extraordinary scenery, dining on local cuisine, and of course seeing great birds! We always hook up with at least one local guide for the best experience. Here are our wonderful upcoming trips, but hurry, our trips are selling out fast!! You can get more information on or website or send Martin an email.

For all trips below with availability, please go to our website for trip information and to register.

June 19-26, 2021 - SOLD OUT! 

August 16-23, 2021 – SOLD OUT!

Guatemala Exploration  

Oaxaca, Mexico  

It’s time again folks! We found the first American Oystercatcher nests already! Don't miss your chance to keep up with all the drama. If you would like to support this project (and we hope you do!) you can adopt a pair of oystercatchers for a $100 donation. You will receive a certificate for each member of your pair with their banding data and Sue will update you monthly on your pair's progress throughout the nesting season. When possible she will send you photos of nests and chicks. You can adopt your pair here: adopt a pair of birds or call and talk to Tricia or Sue. Thanks everyone for your continued support of this important project!

Due to the increase in coronavirus cases, we will not be able to hold a beach cleanup in February. However, we are encouraging volunteers to pick up trash on their own this month! You can do it by yourself or with a safe group.

We will require a bit of data collection at your cleanup (time, place, weather etc.), so please contact csilling@gcbo.org to get more information.

We hope to see you on the beach!

Try these PDFs from the GOS to increase your bird skills. They have photos of (mostly) local birds with a paragraph on each species below. Nobody will get your email and you can unsubscribe whenever you wish. Just email Jim Stevenson at galornsoc@earthlink.net and ask to receive the PDFs. Announcements include environmental projects, field trips and items for sale like Jim’s new book, “Birds of the Gulf Coast.” 

We’ve added new items to our online store! Including several books such as Birdlife of Galveston by Jim Stevenson and Woodcrafting for Birds by Paul Batchelder. Quick, get yours before our staff buys them all for ourselves!

Texas is blessed with wintering hummingbirds, and here on the upper Texas coast we have a mix of some Ruby-throats, maybe a few Black-chinned, definitely some Rufous and Allen’s, a Buff-bellied or two here and there, and at times a few western species such as Anna’s and Broad-tailed, amongst others. We always leave our feeders up all year long here.

That takes a lot of sugar… a LOT! And we could use your help with a present for the hummers. We could use any amount of donated sugar you could help us with. We go through a lot of pounds of it!  Regular plain white sugar, and you can bring it by GCBO during the week, or contact us and we can make arrangements. Thank you!

The Wireless Alliance is a company that recovers and recycles cell phones, smart phones, tablets, and other consumer recyclables.

We will be collecting these items for Wireless Alliance to keep them out of landfills as well as raise money for our conservation efforts. If you have old technology such as a phone, charger, tablet, or other accessories, consider bringing it to GCBO!

Once again, we have had to postpone our Brew on the Bayou event in light of the COVID 19 situation. The safety of our volunteers, visitors, and staff is the most important thing to us, so we will continue to put that first! We hope to see everyone on November 6 for brews, birds, music, and friends!

We're working on fine tuning our email list so that you only get emails that matter to you. At the very bottom of each email there is an "update profile" or "unsubscribe" link you can click that will take you to a page where you can make your selections. We now have specific lists for things like volunteer news, special announcements, events, bird of the month, and more. Please take a moment to update your preferences if you haven't already. Thank you!

We are trying to go as paperless as we can to save some trees and quite a bit on printing and mailing costs. We would love if you would let us email you instead of snail mailing a hard copy of any correspondence, including your future copies of the Gulf Crossings. Please email or call Tricia to say: “Hey, GCBO, please start emailing me things! Here is my email…”   Thanks!   

DONATE NOW on our website to support our conservation programs.

BECOME A MEMBER and receive our twice a year newsletter and a 10% discount in our nature store.

GCBO is a registered charity through Kroger's Community Rewards Program. This means that you can register your Kroger Plus Card online and select GCBO as the organization of your choice. Every time you use your Kroger Plus Card, Kroger will donate a portion back to GCBO! This is an easy way to support GCBO while you shop - your donations help us continue to protect birds and birding habitat around the Gulf Coast and beyond. To register your Plus Card, click here. Our charity number is #DN782.

Telephone: 979-480-0999 | Email Us