Towards the back of The Field Guide to North American Birds, east or west, are several color plates of the birds of southern Texas along the Rio Grande River. The books are called the Peterson after the author. The birds on these pages are common to Mexico and Central America but the northern most area of their natural habitat is southern Texas. Of these birds one of the most colorfully conspicuous is the Green Jay, a relative of the east coast's Blue Jay and the west coast's Stellar's Jay and Scrub Jay. The Green Jay is without crest and flashes brilliant greens and yellows more similar to parrots than the blues and blacks of its northern cousins.
An excellent place to see the Green Jay and many of the other birds of south Texas is the Bentsen-Rio Grande Valley World Birding Center, a Texas state park near Mission, Texas. Here the Green Jays may be seen careening noisily through the dense brush and scrub trees. Although the Green Jay is spectacular there are other intriguing species in the park including the Chachalaca which resembles a cross between a hawk and a rooster with a dull brown coat. The Chachalaca can run incredibly fast propelled by elongated legs, leaning forward, head first. One can imagine a similarly sized dinosaur running in such a position. The Rio Grande in south Texas is a wide, slow moving river running through an equally wide, flat landscape.