Today I will be doing a throwback of 2014. These are the top 10 birds of the year for me in Manhattan. Some are rarities, and some were regular birds that I wanted to include. Lifers are in bold.
10. Baltimore Oriole
While it is common, last winter we had 2 wintering birds in Central park. I liked watching them at the feeders, often together. We saw them from December through at least April, because that's when orioles normally come through.
9. Long-Eared Owl
Last winter there were 2 pairs of birds in the park at different times. We found whitewash and once a pellet, but we never really got good views of them. Both pairs were in different stands of hemlock not far from the Boathouse
8. Rusty Blackbird
One day on a March birdwalk I was following a male Rusty Blackbird through the park, and accidentialy flushed it onto a small frozen pond, where it stayed for quite a while. It was close enough to get pictures and video from my iPhone and it even sang when calls were played.
7. Yellow-Crowned Night Heron
In the middle of May on a birdwalk in the park, we stumbled upon a bunch of people looking at the bird. It was perched high up in a tree and not very mobile, providing great views.
6. Red-Necked Grebe
I searched for this bird on the reservoir in March, and I ran into a guy who found it. The bird was sleeping and far away, which is why it is not higher up on the list.
5. Summer Tanager
This bird was reported on the birdwalk I got the night heron on. We were not far from the bird, which was right near Belvedere castle. The sub-adult bird provided great views feeding.
4. Indigo Bunting
You may wonder what a regular migrant is doing so high up on the list. Well in early May, I saw a young male feeding in a field in the park with about 30 people huddled around it in a semi circle. Later, I saw another bird, an adult male feeding in another field. So many people were focused on that bird, that I was the one to spot the Field Sparrow right next to it!
3. Tennessee Warbler
Possibly one of the hardest warblers to get, not because of rarity, but because it looks very similar to several other warbler species. I saw one and possibly 2 birds in Strawberry Fields in early October and it took about an hour to confirm the identity.
2. Yellow-Billed and Black-Billed Cuckoo
These birds seemed best put together as a set. On that same day as the tanager and night heron, we found a reported YB cuckoo feeding very low on a caterpillar nest. While trying to call it in, we attracted a second YB cuckoo! What are the odds of that? And to top it all off, we tried to bring in a reported BB cuckoo at Azalea Pond and it worked, though the views weren't that great. This means the top spot goes to...
1. Couch's Kingbird
What other bird to put here besides this? After two failed attempts, I finally managed to track down this first state record in the West Village on the last day of the year. It gave me and all the other birders great views as it flycatched on fire escapes. The bird flew all over the village, and I managed to keep up with it for two hours, until I needed to catch myself a meal too. There is simply nothing like seeing something that has never been seen here before.
Runners up:
Eastern Bluebird ( once in April and once in May)
Ruby-Throated Hummingbird (female who made the first Central Park nest ever, but lost its eggs to an oriole)
Ring-Necked Duck (3 in December on the Reservoir)
Pine Siskin (October)
Possibly a few others on here
Cassin's Kingbird was not in Manhattan, so it is not on the list. It would have been #2 though.
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