The photos and content on this site are copyrighted and may not be used without the creator's permission.
Rarities
Every birder is interested in seeing birds that are rare for the area. From time to time, we will post sightings of rare birds seen in the Texas Panhandle on this page so that club members can locate and see the rare bird.
In general, we will only post here those birds that are rare (very uncommon to ever be seen in our area) rather than those that are just being seen out of season. eBird does not distinguish those two categories, but we will for purposes of brevity.
Black-headed Gull
On Saturday, September 20, 2025, Ari Rice, a birder from Lubbock, discovered a rare Black-headed Gull in a flock of mostly Ring-billed Gulls at McGee Lake in Potter County.
The small gull with a red bill, red legs and a thin, black collar generated great interest because Black-headed Gulls are rarely seen in the United States. They winter along the east coast of Canada and are known to summer in Newfoundland, but they are found more commonly in Europe and Asia. Amarillo, Texas is one of the last places a birder would expect to find this gull.
Members of the Panhandle Bird Club located the gull again in a field on the east side of Masterson Road on Sunday morning, September 21, and then many birders from all over Texas arrived to enjoy seeing the bird. As of mid-October, the gull was still located in the same area.
Broad-billed Hummingbird
A private ranch in Potter County attracted a Broad-billed Hummingbird (nick-named "Bill") in late June 2025. As of September 18, 2025, Bill was still enjoying the tall cottonwoods, tasty flowers and full feeders on that ranch. Rhonda Stephenson, who lives on the ranch, was the first to see and identify this bird.
Broad-billed Hummingbirds are extremely rare in the Texas Panhandle. Barrett Pierce spotted one in 2009, but Bill is the first bird documented with photos in our area (the top 26 counties of Texas) in the 21st century.
This beautiful male hummingbird is easily recognized by his long red bill, as well as his irridescent blue and green body.
Trumpeter Swans
Gray County hosted another rariety beginning around Christmas 2024. A pair of immature swans found a pleasant playa off a county road east of Pampa and floated around just out of good camera range (of course). The swans were Trumpeter Swans, based on the v-shaped foreheads and long, sloped heads straight into their black bills. But distinguishing Trumpeter Swans from Tundra Swans, both of which are rare in our area, is difficult. The swans were located at the intersection of County Road E and County Road 13 in Gray County for at least two weeks.
Whooping Cranes
For 18 days in the fall of 2024, two Whooping Cranes visited a playa lake in Gray County, just east of Pampa. They were last seen on October 29, 2024.
Whooping Cranes have never been reported before in Gray County and rarely show up in the Texas Panhandle. Whooping Cranes are the tallest bird in North America and one of the rarest. Only about 700 birds remain in the wild. These birds were probably migrating down to their wintering habitat along the Texas Gulf Coast, although they went about 200 miles west of their normal migration route.
