It seems reasonable to note and thank the finder of the Western Tanager that many, many birders came around to observe, on Sunday Dec. 6th, on Manhattan’s west side (in New York City) in the Chelsea neighborhood at W. 22nd St. - just east of Tenth Avenue.
So, thank you from everyone, Matt Raimondi - who lives exactly where the bird he reported (via eBird) came to visit. It was he who noticed the unusual bird; he also allowed that the tanager had been present, but not seen as clearly, as early as Saturday, Dec. 5th, & he could not be certain that it had not been in the area even before Saturday. It can also be noted that this individual is clearly not the same tanager documented in Brooklyn (Kings County), N.Y. very recently - that Brooklyn tanager had a lot of red facial feathering, while this latest at Chelsea seems to have no red feathers going by my own & many others full-on photos. I would at least tentatively call this a female, but also not rule out it’s being a young, 1st-winter male. While the Chelsea tanager was extremely active and feeding much of Sunday afternoon, it would also for short periods ‘disappear’ and occasionally went up on top of low buildings, some of which have plantings (roof gardens, perhaps) that are mainly invisible to view from the street below - those roof gardens may well have some food sources, such as old fruits, etc. - in the afternoon sun of Sunday, and temp’s. very slightly above freezing all day, the tanager was doing a bit of insect-hawking behavior, hopefully and presumably actually managing to catch some invertebrate prey in so doing. There is a small playground-park (Clement Moore Park) on that corner, and the tanager was going into trees in that small park, as well as (mostly) in various trees, hedges, even briefly on the sidewalk, on the opposite (north) side of 22nd St., from the small park. The tanager also at least briefly made a foray almost half-way up the street, headed east (towards Ninth Ave.) where it joined a small group of American Robins & some other species, in fruiting trees - the fruiting trees are in the multiple and include trees along the low residential buildings, nearer to Tenth Ave., which the tanager was feeding in, often joined by a few Am. Robins or starlings or occasional other species such as House Sparrows, & etc. It would be best to try to keep aware that the area the tanager has chosen to linger is a residential street. There were many curious passersby on Sunday afternoon, and many who also lingered to try for a glimpse & possibly a phone-photo of the rare bird; out of ‘necessity’ there were also some drivers stopping for a short query as to what all the fuss was over, given the small crowds gathered to observe, plus the many curious pedestrians. It would be interesting to know whether any other unexpected birds are in the same area; so far, it seems most that had been reported in addition to the tanager were of generally expected species for December. Some birders were checking around the general area, including myself & another birder who lives not far away. good luck if searching again, & again thanks to the finder/reporter Matt. And take care with the obvious concerns for health awareness all around, and in particular in & around a busy city, Tom Fiore manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES.htm http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave.htm ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) http://birding.aba.org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
