WESTERN TANAGER at City Hall!

Over the years, I've noticed a pattern. Over recent years, every November or December usually features at least one western vagrant that hasn't been seen in Manhattan for several years, and sometimes never. Among these past rarities are Varied Thrush, Rufous Hummingbird, Pacific-Slope Flycatcher, and Couch's Kingbird. But when I heard about a lone report of a Western Tanager at City Hall Park the day before Thanksgiving, I felt on edge, but kept watching the alerts carefully in case someone else confirmed it. This bird has not been seen in Manhattan since a bird appeared in Central Park in April 2008. Several birders went down to City Hall that afternoon, but nobody saw it. The next morning, a few birders lucked out and refound the tanager. I headed down there that afternoon and came across a group of birders looking at it. The WESTERN TANAGER (#164) was very high up, but it still offered identifiable views. Perhaps the strangest thing about this park was its diversity. For some reason, various species, including some that should be well south of the city, choose to linger for days or weeks in pocket parks like this one. I saw an Ovenbird, 2 Black-Throated Blue Warblers, and a Yellow-Breasted Chat, all of which gave great views and should be over 1000 miles south. Others also saw 2 Common Yellowthroats which I missed despite my best efforts. This park proved to be an amazing little patch of green, and produced almost 20 species. Here is what I saw:

Red-Tailed Hawk
Pigeons
2 Downy Woodpeckers
3 Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers
3 Hermit Thrushes
Starlings
OVENBIRD
2 BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLERS (male and female)
YELLOW-BREASTED CHAT
Fox Sparrow
Juncos
White-Throated Sparrows
Song Sparrow
Swamp Sparrow
*WESTERN TANAGER*
Cardinal
House Sparrow