Laguna Atascoas National Wildlife Refuge provides wintering and feeding area for migratory waterfowl, and habitat for two species of endangered cats - the ocelot and jaguarundi. The refuge has a very high biological diversity including seven endangered species and 406 species of birds. Seventy percent of the North American population of redhead ducks winters here. Additionally, during fall and winter, large numbers of redhead ducks, canvasbacks, pintails and other ducks are easily visible as well as some sandhill cranes.
Migratory shorebirds are also abundant.
The spring migration is often a birder's paradise with many species of songbirds, shorebirds and raptors visible. Resident wildlife species most often observed include white-tailed deer, javelina, coyote, bobcat, alligator and armadillo. This member of the cat family, the jaguarundi, lives from Arizona and Texas to South America. Eighty percent of the United States' redhead duck population winter in the Laguna Atascosa refuge. Photo by Gary Halvorsen, courtesy of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.