Supplemental recordings are from Gregory F. Budney, Lang Elliot, Matthew D. Medler, Wilbur Hershberger and the Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The mourning dove looks like an especially graceful pigeon, with a long, pointed tail and a small head. In flight this bird spreads its broad wings and tail, often soaring on thermals. Many people associate pigeons in the park with urban birding. Scarlet tanagers prefer the crowns of trees. Stake out tent caterpillar nests; cuckoos have a weakness for them. To submit a letter to the editor for publication, write to, Hear 13 Birds Flourishing in a Newly Quiet New York. Red-tailed hawks seem to be all over the city, from Central Park to parkway median strips, always glaring, on the lookout for rodents. Two forms of this bird coexist, tan-crowned and white-crowned — each attracted to the opposite color for breeding purposes. Just the same, it’s worth trying to spy on one of spring’s most captivating rituals. As days lengthen, males begin their plaintive calling, and freshen up their plumage, so that a bird who is with us most of the year suddenly appears like a recent arrival from warmer ports of call. During breeding, males make themselves very visible on fence posts and open snags on quiet bay beaches. Intelligent and highly social, European starlings are an invasive species that have gone on to become New York City’s most common bird. Long and lean, these birds perch in the dense tangles of local woodlands. A repetitive, piercing “witchety-witchety-witchety-witchety” from low tangles of vegetation. Though they can be seen year-round, they begin their distinctive calling in spring, especially in parks, yards and wherever food is available. These species represent 23 orders and 67 families of birds. This spring, we can hear them. By Antonio de Luca, Dave Taft and Umi Syam May 31, 2020. In flight, the yellow-billed cuckoo has attractive rust-colored wing patches, with white spots arranged in parallel lines along the underside of a long tail. Rusty brown overall, the wood thrush spends most of its time foraging through leaf litter looking for insects and other prey. And as for that iconic cry: As impressive as bald eagles look, their high-pitched chirps can be underwhelming. These warblers challenge even binocular-wielding birders because of their preference for heights. You’ll find them at the edges of woodlands, at bird feeders or even streetside near parks. Where taller trees are absent, birds may forage at lower levels. New York City Birds. And some will probably only be heard, and never seen. Pelham Bay in the Bronx and Plumb Beach in Brooklyn are two places to look. Listen for the unusual peenting call in a field in the late evening or at dawn in spring. The call of the wood thrush is the sound of summer evenings. Here are 13 birds that you can hear right now. The official bird list for the New York metropolitan area ranges around the 400 species mark. A landlocked shorebird with a plump body and a long, probing bill, the woodcock is unmistakable but difficult to see in dim light. There is an obvious upside to the unnatural pall that has fallen over the city. Red-tailed hawks seem to be all over the city, from Central Park to parkway median strips, always glaring, on the lookout for rodents. Illustrated by David Allen Sibley. The comments section is closed. Its breast is a warm white with well-defined speckling, and it has a prominent eye-ring. At this time of year, males are marked with bright yellow spots just above their bill (the “lores,” technically), a bright white throat and stripes across their heads, set off by crisp black markings. When an eagle cries in a car commercial or a cowboy movie, you’re probably hearing the dubbed scream of a red-tailed hawk. In flight, ospreys’ long wings are bent, with a dark patch at each wrist. A buzzy, husky call described as “Zoo-zoo-zee-zoo!”. Unless noted otherwise, the source is the Checklist of New York State Birds published by the New York State Avian Records Committee (NYSARC) of the New York State Ornithological Association. The famous (among birders) “Cock-a-r-e-e-e.” It is the sound of spring. Around New York City, laughing gulls have staked out a claim to the marshes of Jamaica Bay in Brooklyn and Queens, and have forced a grudging relationship with the Federal Aviation Administration at Kennedy Airport. A repeated and piercing “Will, will, willet, will, will, willet.” Which is why they’re called willets. It has a white-crested head with dark, horizontal eye stripes. An additional, "hypothetical", species is also noted by NYSARC. Perhaps less well known to all but avid birders is that fact that the Big Apple also identifies as a birder’s haven. There are many comical mnemonics for this bird’s unique and plaintive call. Unfortunately, these birds seem prone to window strikes during migration, and can sometimes be observed, up close, recovering, or deceased below large buildings in early spring. Despite plumage so bright they look lit from within, they stay out of sight. Sonograms from Donald Kroodsma. Here is a mix of the birds passing through New York right now. During the height of the spring migration — that is, now — wander woodlands in the mornings. The birds are not new to the city. A clear, musical three-note call, but the final syllable is an anatomical wonder: several tones produced simultaneously, resulting in a complex, oddly metallic and resonant call, like a softly echoing tambourine. But around the edges of wetlands, ponds or saltwater bays, males make themselves very visible: They are jet black in breeding season, with brilliant orange and yellow shoulders. Ospreys are found anywhere there is open water, from the Central Park Reservoir to the edges of Queens. This list of birds of New York includes the 494 species and a species pair of wild birds documented in New York as of July 2020. New York City has its share of pigeons. Females remain drab green all year, a better strategy for protecting valuable eggs while nesting. When the pandemic collided with the spring migration, the sounds of the city changed overnight. A melodic trill that sounds like a robin with a sore throat. A mournful cooing, often mistaken by the novice for the hoot of an owl. Fortunately, the male’s distinct black markings and yellow-green face and upper body make identification pretty easy. Stay silent and still. Both males and females are a warm olive green, shading toward yellow at the face and breast, the females a little less bright. Their ability to hide is legendary, but hearing them always confirms their presence, and that is always easier without airplanes overhead. The males have a broad bandit’s mask (very pronounced during breeding season) set off by a white band. Suddenly, in place of car horns, roaring planes, rattling trains and buses, New York City seems to be filled with bird song. Dr. Donald Kroodsma is an ornithologist and the author of "Birdsong for the Curious Naturalist: Your Guide to Listening". Early mornings at the edges of woodlands. New York City Birds Everything related to NYC birding Prothonotary Warbler: Great Blue Heron: Boreal Owl: Calliope Hummingbird: Cape May Warbler: Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Most common are probably “O sweet Canada Canada!” or the oddly specific “Sam Peabody…Peabody…Peabody.”. Breeding woodcocks will emerge and suddenly spiral upward in a mating flight that takes them 50 or 60 feet high, before falling back to their original locations. The yellowthroat prefers swampy tangled shrubbery, where it can be observed low in the branches foraging for insects. Small and shapely, with a dark red bill and legs and a black head, the laughing gull can be spotted all day along shorelines or in the Rockaways and parts of southern Brooklyn. But you are more likely to hear this bird before you see it. Huge flocks, called murmurations, can be seen coming home to roost at Broadway Bridge and Flushing Meadow where hawks and falcons wait to pick them off. When the pandemic collided with the spring migration, the sounds of the city changed overnight. Females are a streaky brown color in order to camouflage with vegetation while raising their young. A sharp, staccato, “Kak-kak-kak-kak!” It’s the mysterious bird hiding the jungle in every Tarzan movie. By late summer, they begin to shed their flaming red to resume a more sensible, camouflaged life in olive green. It’s just that the pause in the urban soundtrack happens to coincide with the peak of the spring migration along the Atlantic coast. 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