Manhattan, N.Y. City - Thursday, April 4th - At Bryant Park, one city block east of Times Square in midtown, a Virginia Rail was ongoing thru all of Thursday - also seen there were ongoing American Woodcock, and modest variety of other birds, some such as Gray Catbirds which had overwintered there.
Monk Parakeet was ongoing in northern Manhattan - that species has been seen in multiple locations, including in the past month at and near Inwood Hill Park, as well as locations east and south of there. Some of the birds being seen by now-many observers at Central Park, as of Thursday, included the recently-arrived Louisiana Waterthrushes, Pine Warblers, and - by some - Palm Warbler and Myrtle a.k.a. Yellow-rumped Warbler, as well as ongoing Red-throated and Common Loon, and the hen Lesser Scaup and other ducks at the C.P. reservoir, some Northern Rough-winged and Tree Swallows also ongoing lately, Great Egrets, Eastern Phoebes, Yellow-shafted Flickers and Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, Winter Wrens and Carolina Wrens, Brown Creepers, Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets, Hermit Thrushes, these including some freshly arriving migrants recently, Eastern Towhees, Red Fox Sparrows and the following additional Sparrow species - Chipping in increased numbers, Field, Swamp, White-throated in somewhat-increased numbers, Song Sparrows in good numbers, and Slate-colored Juncos also in good numbers, all the sparrows in many scattered locations. Some but not quite all of the above birds also have been seen elsewhere in Manhattan, and in the county, while the enormous observer-coverage at Central Park especially means that far more sightings are generated from there than all of the rest of Manhattan combined - although, that little rail at Bryant Park is giving old Central Park a strong run - with the edge going to the rail-watchers. A Baltimore Oriole in female plumage was again reported from a lower-east section of Manhattan. A small number of reports of other birds of potential wider interest appear to have lacked sufficient details. or for other reasons were not confirmed as the species which had been reported at-first and publicly. A good clear photo, whether by phone or camera, or a sharp-imaged video may be enough to help confirm some sightings. It is also great however to keep notes as to what was / is observed, in any nature sightings. A Vesper Sparrow still seen at the n. end of Central Park earlier in the week may have moved on by now. A bit early, and more-uncommonly found there in spring migrations. The following are only some of the species found on Thursday, 4/4/24 at Central Park, by a sum of multi-hundreds of observers glad to get out in some slightly brighter April weather - Red-throated Loon - ongoing at C.P. reservoir. Common Loon - same as per above species. Double-crested Cormorant Great Blue Heron Great Egret Black-crowned Night-Heron Turkey Vulture - flyovers. Canada Goose Wood Duck Gadwall American Black Duck Mallard Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal - a pair continued at The Pool, in the parks NW quadrant. Lesser Scaup - a hen continued at the Central Park reservoir. Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Red-breasted Merganser - they continued at the C.P. reservoir. Ruddy Duck Osprey - flyovers. Bald Eagle - flyovers. Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper's Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Peregrine Falcon American Coot American Woodcock Ring-billed Gull American Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull feral Rock Pigeon Mourning Dove Belted Kingfisher Red-bellied Woodpecker Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Yellow-shafted Flicker Eastern Phoebe Northern Raven - this includes occasional showings by one of the nesting-pair birds nearby. Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow Tree Swallow Northern Rough-winged Swallow Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Hermit Thrush - some increase has been evident. American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling Cedar Waxwing - scarce right now. House Sparrow Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Clay-colored Sparrow Field Sparrow Red Fox Sparrow - ongoing in nice numbers, and many have been singing. Song Sparrow Swamp Sparrow White-throated Sparrow Slate-colored Junco Northern Cardinal Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird - scarce, watch for birds starting to show in breeding, i.e. non-rusty plumage. Common Grackle Brown-headed Cowbird Purple Finch - scarce... but might possibly increase as April moves along. House Finch American Goldfinch - only in small numbers so far. -- Myrtle -Yellow-rumped- Warbler - scant sightings still represent locally-wintered individuals. Pine Warbler - multiples, including multiple singing-at-times males. Palm Warbler - still rather few, all seen have been of the yellow form. Louisiana Waterthrush - including at the north end, and in the Ramble section of the park. -- -- (copy & paste any URL below, then modify any text "_DOT_" to a period ".") NYSbirds-L List Info: NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsWELCOME_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsRULES_DOT_htm NortheastBirding_DOT_com/NYSbirdsSubscribeConfigurationLeave_DOT_htm ARCHIVES: 1) mail-archive_DOT_com/nysbirds-l@cornell_DOT_edu/maillist_DOT_html 2) surfbirds_DOT_com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L 3) birding_DOT_aba_DOT_org/maillist/NY01 Please submit your observations to eBird: ebird_DOT_org/content/ebird/ --
