Marisa Oliva recalls walking a group of local high school students through the Edinburg World Birding Center when they came across a visiting birder.

He told the students about the wide array of migratory and native birds they have to enjoy in their native Rio Grande Valley.

The group moved on, leaving the birder to his pastime. Oliva said a girl in the group then remarked, “How does a guy from somewhere else know so much about what we have here and we don’t know anything?” 

That story in a nutshell describes what Oliva has worked for 17 years to change as manager of the Edinburg Scenic Wetlands & World Birding Center. It’s a beautiful spot. The 40-acre green space just off Raul Longoria Road is immediately adjacent to the city’s sprawling municipal park. The Edinburg center is one of nine birding centers across the Valley.

From the bluffs of Roma to Hugh Ramsey Park in Harlingen to Resaca de la Palma in Brownsville, the birding centers have given the region a new perspective of native habitat and wildlife it formerly paid scant attention to while visiting birders raved about it. 

The first birding center, in Weslaco, opened nearly 20 years ago. Edinburg’s center got started in 2003. The initial goal of the birding centers then was eco-tourism. The birding centers have indeed drawn birders from all over the United States. The real passion, however, at some of the centers, like the one in Edinburg, is educating their communities about the fascinating wildlife and habitat found in the Valley.

“It’s a big part of who we are,” Oliva said of local outreach efforts. “We have seen understanding of our local habitat grow. We have grown naturalists.”

Having An Influence

Oliva is a San Antonio native but with Valley ties.

Her grandparents lived in McAllen, so coming to the Valley in 2003 after her college years at Texas A&M and Penn State, it was like arriving at a second home. She did so after hiking in Colorado and seeing people of color birding and enjoying nature.

“It had a big impact on me,” Oliva said. “I saw people that look like me having a one-on-one experience with nature.”

She wanted to have that kind of influence on Valley youth. Hundreds of Edinburg students stream through the local birding center as Oliva and her staff coordinate educational programs with the local school district. There are also family and adult programs to go with summer camps to inform and educate about Valley habitat and wildlife.

A spacious visitors center in the midst of the Edinburg woods is well stocked with informational visuals and pamphlets. A huge blue heron overlooks it all. It’s a massive replica of the sort of birds found at the city reservoir that edges up to the birding center and the municipal park. Oliva said the Edinburg center is often the first stop of arriving birders as they make the rounds of nature stops around the Valley.

“We know birders in-and-of themselves are not the only thing that brings people here,” she said. “We love our birders and our Winter Texans. But what about our locals?”

Community Connections

It’s an important question to answer given the connection the birding center has to Edinburg’s municipal government.

The center is part of the Edinburg Parks & Recreation Department. Oliva and her staff have strived to meet their mission to emphasize local in addition to hosting the visiting birders. She brightens up when discussing the impressions her birding and wetlands center makes on the many students who get a firsthand look at the Valley’s natural setting.

Oliva recalled one student who got a close-up view of bees pollinating flowers during a tour. Oliva said the young girl was delighted with what she saw.

“This is better than the Discovery Channel!” Oliva said the girl exclaimed. 

The birding center manager smiled at the memory of the girls and the bees. She is no doubt looking forward to many more such experiences of students getting that one-on-one experience with nature, not in Colorado, but in the Rio Grande Valley.