The tiny golden-cheeked warbler’s home in Central Texas just got a little bit bigger.
The 28,000-acre Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge that spans Burnet, Travis, and Williamson counties announced it has added nearly 300 acres, about a year after a 317-acre addition through an initiative by The Conservation Fund in partnership with Friends of Balcones.
The expansion was supported by a mix of public and private funding, including donations from the Woodnext Foundation and the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a national coalition that protects national parks. Both new tracts were purchased from landowners in Burnet County.
A medley of wildlife and greenery call the refuge home. Goldfinches and wrens live within the rolling hills’ thick blanket of oaks, elms, and juniper trees. Below are caves and sinkholes where tooth cave spiders and tiny pseudoscorpions crawl around.
But most people visit the refuge to catch a glimpse of a pocket-sized songbird with a striking gold head.
A golden-cheeked warbler, the only bird species whose population nests exclusively in Texas. They only breed in Central Texas’ ashe juniper and oak woodlands. Gil Eckrich
The 4-inch tall golden-cheeked warbler is the only bird species whose population nests exclusively in Texas; they only breed in Central Texas’ ashe juniper and oak woodlands.
“I always like to say that golden-cheek warblers are all Texans,” said Ellen Gass, Texas field representative at The Conservation Fund. “That’s why we work so hard to protect them.”
This warbler draws birders from across the nation who travel to the Hill Country just to hear its unique, buzzy song for themselves.
Nicole Sarkar, executive director at Friends of Balcones, said expanding the golden-cheeked warbler’s habitat is important because they have been on the national endangered list since 1990. Development and flooding have caused their habitat to shrink, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
Securing more than 600 more acres will help protect where warblers nest, along with hundreds of other bird species that live in the refuge, Sarkar said.
The addition to the 28,000-acre Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge is shown in red. The massive refuge spans parts of Burnet, Travis, and Williamson Counties. GIS For The People
In addition to expanding the refuge, which is protected and owned by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Gass said the woodlands greenery also serves as a natural flood buffer.
”By protecting habitat in this area, we get this added benefit of helping flood mitigation and flood prevention,” Gass said. “Especially in an area that’s seeing really impactful and quick development.”
The new 600 acres don’t have a public trail, but elsewhere in the refuge, visitors can trek 10 miles of trails and birdwatch from its many observation decks.
A black-capped vireo male near Fort Lancaster in Crockett Co. on June 17, 2005. Greg W. Lasley
The refuge was created in 1992 to protect the golden-cheeked warbler and the black-capped vireo, a small songbird with a dark head and red eyes that likes to hop between low bushes and short trees. After more than 30 years of being on the endangered species list, the black-capped vireo was removed in 2018.
Sarkar said she hopes the same happens for the golden-cheeked warbler, which she spotted for the first time in April.
“I’ve heard the song, I’ve listened to it, and then I’ve seen photos of the bird,” she said. “But to be able to hear it and see it at the same time while at the refuge was really exciting.”
A tree along the Pollinator Path outside of the headquarters at the Balcones Canyonlands National Wildlife Refuge on July 1, 2021. Claire Hassler/USFWS
