I like to imagine that Bert was not only singing about the local Rock Pigeons of Sesame Street but that he was knowledgeable about the world’s many species of pigeons.  I fantasize about him visiting the Lower Rio Grande Valley to come see our very own specialty pigeon, the Red-billed Pigeon!

Unlike city pigeons, the Red-billed Pigeons are always beautiful birds and never bothersome. They live in riparian habitats and can be wary and often hard to see. In fact, they are one of the less-frequently seen Valley specialties on our field trips. Still, there’s always a chance, and with their limited range in the USA, Red-billed Pigeons are one of the birds that makes the Rio Grande Valley such an intriguing destination for birdwatching.  We at the RGV Birding Festival want the world to know they are here.  “How will we do that?,” you ask.

Drum roll please…….

The 18th annual Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival T-shirt will feature a pair of red-billed pigeons surrounded by lovely anacua leaves and berries. This year’s art has been designed for us by the award-winning artist Debby Kaspari. Ta da!

Debby Kaspari draws and paints birds from life, traveling around the world with her sketchbooks and binoculars. Her illustrations are featured in the upcoming Field Guide to Birds of Trinidad and Tobago (Cornell University) and Drawing and Painting Birds (Crowood Press). Her paintings have been shown in the Woodson Museum’s Birds in Art and the Society of Animal Artist’s Art and the Animal and she is a long-time contributor to Birdwatcher’s Digest.

Debby lives in Norman, Oklahoma, with her husband, tropical ecologist and Oklahoma University professor Mike Kaspari. Her award-nominated blog can be found here: Drawing the Motmot

Join, Debby, Bert, and all of us at the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival this year in “Doing the Pigeon”!