In Starr County, Falcon Heights is located south of Zapata on Hwy 83 near the dam that impounds International Falcon Reservoir on the Rio Grande.
It was founded in 1954 when Falcon Dam was completed, at the site of an active Catholic mission church, Holy Trinity. In 1990 the community had a post office, a population of 361, two motels, three trailer parks, a lumberyard, an automatic telephone center, a bar, a water company, and a Baptist church. The seventy-five-acre Starr County Recreation Park provides camping and picnicking facilities. Nearby Falcon State Park offers fishing, boating, swimming, and camping.
The predominantly Spanish-speaking residents, many of them descendants of settlers who came to the area nearly 300 years ago, provide services for tourists. More than 1,000 bird-watchers come every year to see the ferruginous pygmy owl, the brown jay, Audubon's oriole, and other birds.