Friday, January 4, 2019

Rounding out 2018 and looking forward to a new year of birds

Welcome to a new year!

I had a personal 2018 goal to keep a bird checklist each day. This not only gave me something to look forward to each day, it provided a constant challenge to seek out something new. I plan to keep the same goal in 2019 and recommend using the citizen science site, eBird, for keeping records. It's not only fun, but is educational provides useful information to scientists studying bird migrations.

Bird migration in New York this last fall turned out to be a spectacular season and I was introduced to several species I'd never seen before. I couldn't get photos of all of them, but below are some highlights of birds seen in the city.

Hermit Thrush:

Hermit Thrush

Tufted Titmouse:

Tufted titmouse

Tufted titmouse

Chipping Sparrow:

Chipping sparrow

Field Sparrow:

Field sparrow

Song Sparrow:

Song sparrow

Dark-Eyed Junco:

Junco

American Goldfinch:

Goldfinch

Purple Finch:

Purple finch

Golden-Crowned Kinglet:

Golden-crowned kinglet

Ruby-Crowned Kinglet:

Ruby-crowned kinglet

Palm Warbler:

Palm warbler

Black-Throated Green Warbler:

Black-throated green warbler

American Coot:

Coot

Northern Shoveler:

Northern 
Shoveler

Wood Duck:

Wood Duck

And, finally...the obligatory Mandarin Duck in Central Park, who made headlines this last year:

Mandarin Duck






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