Galveston Island may be something of a resort town, but many of its beaches are as wild as they were centuries ago. Many shorebirds and waterfowl make their home here, as with much of coastal Texas, but Galveston has some special populations. Thousands of Black Terns settle themselves on San Luis Pass in August and early September and from late April to late September, you can find Magnificent Frigatebirds roosting on West Bay. North Deer Island is a massive rookery for waterbirds.

If you wander just off the island to Texas City, you can possibly find the rare Black-legged Kittiwake or the Red-throated Loon at the dike. You can definitely find the likewise hard find Attwater Prairie-Chicken at Galveston Bay reserve. And a jump up to Port Bolivar lends access to Fort Travis Seashore Park, which has the occasional rare migrant, like Cape May and Black-throated Blue Warblers.

Other interesting species include the Upland Sandpiper, the American Golden-Plover, the Whimbrel, the Northern Harrier, and the Long-billed Curlew.