What to look for in nature in Texas this April

Is April the best month for birds on the Texas coast?

• Fallouts after a front

  Early March to mid-May, most often in April · Wooded sanctuaries on the upper coast, including High Island, and groves along the Gulf shore

  Houston Audubon explains that a fallout needs a strong, fast-moving cold front that crosses the coast and moves out over the Gulf in the middle of the day. Birds that left Mexico near sunset meet turbulent north winds and rain at the end of a crossing that takes roughly 18 hours in good conditions, and they drop into the first trees they find. On those mornings a small sanctuary can hold more species than a large forest inland, but the birds are exhausted. Stay on the paths, keep voices low and do not play recordings to draw them out. On a calm day with a south wind the same birds can fly over the coast and land far inland, so a fallout is a matter of luck.

• What arrives when

  Mid-April to mid-May for many of the showiest species · Woodlands and thickets across the eastern half of the state

  The Texas Parks and Wildlife migration calendar gives windows by species. Yellow-billed cuckoos, golden-winged warblers and cerulean warblers are listed from mid-April to the beginning or middle of May, while ruby-throated hummingbirds run from late March to mid-May and black-and-white warblers from early March to late April. Eastern wood-pewees and magnolia, Blackburnian and bay-breasted warblers do not appear until late April and run into mid-May, so the best of the colorful warblers is a late-April and May story. Hudsonian godwits and buff-breasted sandpipers, birds of wet fields and short grass, are listed from mid-April to the beginning of May.

• A bird count to join

  Annually, with a tournament that has run April 15 to May 15 · Statewide, with teams choosing their own routes

  The Great Texas Birding Classic is a long-running tournament that raises money for habitat. Its 2026 dates were April 15 to May 15, and the organizer’s page did not yet show 2027 dates when we read it, so check with Texas Parks and Wildlife before planning around it. You do not have to compete to benefit; a family can simply keep a list.

What is nesting on the Texas coast and in East Texas in April?

• Spoonbills and egrets at Smith Oaks

  March through May; Houston Audubon says by mid-April eggs are hatching and nest building is in full swing · Smith Oaks Bird Sanctuary rookery, High Island

  Houston Audubon describes a U-shaped island in Claybottom Pond where roseate spoonbills, great, snowy and cattle egrets, tricolored and little blue herons, white ibis and neotropic cormorants nest, safe from ground predators. Great egrets arrive in March to display, and the colony has grown from 50 nests in July 1995 to 1,083 pairs by 2003, the sanctuary’s own figures. The sanctuary is open from dawn to dusk every day of the year, and the best viewing, it says, is the last hour before dark when birds come in to roost. Watch from the paths, use binoculars, and leave the island alone.

• Swallow-tailed kites over the bottomlands

  Most arrive from mid-March to early May · River bottomlands and swamps of far southeast Texas, such as the lower Sabine River and the Trinity River

  The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas calls the swallow-tailed kite a rare to locally uncommon summer resident, now restricted to a small area in the southeast corner of the state, with nesting from late February to early July. It is a graceful black-and-white raptor with a long forked tail. Houston Audubon names the Trinity River, the Wallisville Lake area and Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge as places to look and says the birds are uncommon on the upper coast. Do not expect one, but scan the sky above tall trees.

• Painted buntings return

  Arrivals run March 5 to May 22, mostly April to mid-May · Brushy edges, roadsides and streamsides across much of the state

  The Texas Breeding Bird Atlas says the state appears to hold more nesting painted buntings than any other, and that most birds arrive from April to mid-May. The male is red below, green above and blue-headed, but Texas Parks and Wildlife notes the bird stays in dense cover and rarely visits feeders, except when a male sings at dawn. Listen for the song from a thicket at first light, and expect the female to build her nest low in a bush, using spider silk to bind it.

Is early April the peak for bluebonnets, and what blooms with them?

• Indian paintbrush

  March, April and May, with the best color in April · Prairies, roadsides and open hills, often beside bluebonnets

  A Wildflower Center expert explains that paintbrush blooms in March, April and May with the bluebonnets. It is a hemiparasite: it makes some of its own food, but its roots attach to a host plant, often a grass, and without a host it stays stunted and never flowers. That is why paintbrush moved to a garden often dies. The center lists winecup, plains coreopsis, firewheel, blackfoot daisy and Texas bluebells as plants that bloom alongside it.

• Roadside flowers and mowing

  Through April, as flowers go to seed · Highway right-of-way statewide

  The Wildflower Center says the Texas Department of Transportation times its roadside mowing so that bluebonnets and other wildflowers can set seed for the next year. If a field looks untidy in May, it is probably working. Pick nothing from a road shoulder that is not yours, and keep clear of private land. Many of the best fields are behind fences.

• Pitcher plants in a wet pine bog

  Large yellow flowers in late March and April · Pitcher Plant Trail, Turkey Creek Unit of Big Thicket National Preserve, near Warren

  The National Park Service says the pitcher plants’ flowers appear in late March and April, while the plants themselves are small in spring and reach their peak size in summer and early fall. The trail is a one-mile round trip, with the first quarter mile on pavement and boardwalk through the bog and the rest on a dirt path that can be muddy after rain. The preserve holds four of the six kinds of carnivorous plant found in North America: pitcher plants, sundews, bladderworts and butterworts. Rangers offer free guided walks in spring and summer; call the preserve at 409-951-6700 for times. Stay on the boardwalk, because bog plants are fragile and slow to recover.

When does the Colima warbler return to Big Bend?

• A Mexican warbler in a Texas canyon

  Usually begins to arrive in late April and is gone by August · The oak woods of the high Chisos Mountains, around Boot Canyon and along the Laguna Meadows trail

  The National Park Service says Colima warblers are found only in Big Bend National Park, mainly in the high Chisos. They usually start to arrive in late April, so the first weeks of the month are early. Boot Canyon is reached by 4.5 miles of steep, rugged trail, and the park suggests bringing plenty of water and considering an overnight campsite. Citizen scientists have surveyed territories from Green Gulch to Boot Canyon every five years since 1967. Ask at the visitor center about recent sightings, since birders gather there in late April hoping for news of the first arrivals.

• Birding the lower elevations

  All month · River corridor, desert springs, grasslands and woodlands

  The park advises visiting every habitat, not only one, since riparian corridors, desert springs, open desert, grasslands and pinyon, oak and juniper woods each hold different birds. Early morning is the best time at low elevations. Carry water, wear a hat and check conditions at a visitor center before a long hike.

What is being born, hatching or spawning in Texas in April?

• Bison calves at Caprock Canyons

  Calving usually runs March through May · Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway, near Quitaque

  Caprock Canyons holds the official Texas State Bison Herd, which Texas Parks and Wildlife describes as more than 300 strong. The newborn calves are reddish-brown and weigh 30 to 60 pounds, and park officials recommend staying at least 50 yards from the bison. Texas Parks and Wildlife reminds visitors that bison are wild animals and posts safety advice on its herd page. The park also hosts a colony of Brazilian free-tailed bats in Clarity Tunnel in the warmer months.

• Kemp’s ridley turtles nesting by day

  Mid-March through August · Padre Island National Seashore and other Gulf beaches

  The National Park Service says Kemp’s ridleys are the only sea turtles that nest mostly in daylight, perhaps because it helps protect eggs from raccoons and other night hunters. It estimates about 55 females nest in Texas each year, after the species’ nests peaked near 20,000 across Texas and Mexico combined in 2009, a number that fell in 2010 and has not recovered. If you see a turtle on a beach, stay well back and report it through the seashore’s website, or call the Malaquite Visitor Center at 361-949-8068. Hatchling releases follow later in the season, and dates are posted by the park.

• Monarchs of the new generation

  Spring, as the first offspring develop · Anywhere native milkweed is up, such as antelope horn milkweed

  Texas Parks and Wildlife says the monarchs that crossed from Mexico lay eggs on emerging milkweed, and that their offspring continue north, leaving most of Texas behind. So in April the caterpillars on a milkweed in your yard may be the first generation of the year. Journey North takes sighting reports, and the iNaturalist project called Texas Milkweeds and Monarchs maps where the plants grow.

• White bass in the rivers

  Texas Parks and Wildlife gives February to May for the run in the Llano River arm of Lake LBJ · River arms above Hill Country lakes, such as the Llano and Colorado rivers

  White bass leave the lakes and push up the rivers to spawn, and the timing depends on rain and water temperature. April is late in the run for some rivers and still in it for others. Check Texas Parks and Wildlife’s fishing reports and regulations for the water you plan to fish, and learn the license rules before you go.

How warm is April in Texas, and is this the start of tornado season?

Can Texas still get a freeze in April?

How much daylight do Texas cities gain in April?

What is in the Texas night sky in April 2027?

• Venus before dawn, with a crescent moon

  Venus all month; the thin Moon passes it on the mornings of April 3 and 4 · Low in the east before sunrise

  Venus keeps shining in the dawn, but it is slipping toward the Sun, rising about an hour and a quarter ahead of it on the first day of the month. A slim waning crescent, roughly nine percent lit, hangs a few degrees from the planet in the dawn sky on both April 3 and April 4. Saturn is out of sight all month, since it lines up with the far side of the Sun on April 7.

• Jupiter and Mars in the evening

  The Moon joins Jupiter on the evenings of April 14 and 15 · High in the south and southwest after dark

  Jupiter, brilliant in Leo, stays up until nearly dawn at the start of the month, setting some nine hours after the Sun. The waxing Moon, about two-thirds lit, passes just one degree from it as darkness falls on April 14 and again on April 15. By the 15th it also stands roughly three degrees from Mars, a steady orange point now fading to about magnitude zero. Both pairings fit in one phone photograph on a tripod.

• The Pink Moon

  Full at 5:27 p.m. CDT on Tuesday, April 20 (4:27 p.m. MDT in El Paso) · Rising in the east at dusk

  The Pink Moon is the April full moon, a name tied to spring flowers; it is also called the Sprouting Grass Moon, according to Sea and Sky. It is full in the late afternoon, so the best evening is April 20, when it rises at about 7:58 p.m. in Houston. The pink in the name is not a color in the sky.

• The Lyrid meteors, spoiled by the Moon

  Active about April 14 to 30; peak about 8:41 p.m. CDT on Thursday, April 22 · Look away from the Moon, toward the north and east

  A bright, nearly full Moon comes up around 10 p.m. in Houston that night. Before it rises the sky is dark, though the shower’s radiant, in the constellation Lyra, is then still low toward the northeast. Sea and Sky says the Moon will wash out most of the fainter meteors this year. Expect a handful an hour at best, and treat any bright streak as a bonus. The shower occasionally surprises observers, but nobody can predict when.

• The Milky Way before dawn

  April 1 to 15 and April 27 to 30 in the southern half of the state · Dark sites such as Big Bend and the Hill Country

  Near Austin and Houston (about 30 degrees north) our own calculation finds the Milky Way’s bright core at least 10 degrees above the horizon, with no moon in the sky, for as long as 2.4 hours before sunrise on those mornings. The new moon on April 6 sits in the middle of the first window. Step outside well before first light, and give your eyes a good while to adjust.

What can Texas families do outdoors in April 2027?

Safety notes for April in Texas