Helicopters and jets aren’t the only frequent flyers in the city sky. New York is one of the world’s best cities for birdwatching, and not just for pigeons.
BRING YOUR BINOCULARS
Experts calculate that between 300 and 400 different species of birds migrate through or inhabit New York City each year.
On an ordinary day, without trying too hard, a birder can see 75 to 100 species; in a year, if you work at it, you can see 200 to 300. Fairly easy to spot are herons, doves, orioles, wrens, woodpeckers, falcons, owls, mockingbirds, and cardinals, to name just a few. And birders can track rarer species by checking out the New York Rare Bird Alert. For those who like to keep score, New York City Audubon organizes an annual Christmas Bird Count, in which teams count every bird seen in their assigned areas of the five boroughs—on a single day.
WHY NEW YORK?
New York City is situated along the Atlantic Flyway, the coastal north-south migration route for millions of birds. During their long flights, the birds must rest and feed, and millions of them land in New York City parks, gardens, and beaches. The city is also home to many year-round nesting and breeding species.
Habitat is the key: New York City has an astonishing number of habitats that are hospitable to birds. There are 1,700 public parks; fresh-water marshes, lakes, and streams; saltwater beaches and marshes; rocky shorelines; estuaries; small islands; manmade ponds; private lawns; and even woodlands. Central Park is an outstanding birdwatching spot, an oasis for migrating and nesting birds, in which at least 285 species have been observed in recent years. The best spots for watching: around the water of the Harlem Meer, and in the woods and glades of the Ramble.
LIFE ON THE LEDGE
Across from Central Park, on the 12th-floor ledge of a luxury co-op building at 927 Fifth Avenue, is a large bird’s nest made of twigs and sticks. Its builder and longtime tenant is a red-tailed hawk called Pale Male. He was first spotted in the park in 1991 and, as of 2006, had fathered 26 chicks with three different mates. He’s been with his latest mate, Lola, since 2002, and they raised seven chicks between 2002 and 2004.
In 1984 the NY Knicks won the NBA’s first draft “lottery”—they chose Patrick Ewing.
Then disaster struck: In December 2004, the co-op board of 927 Fifth Avenue removed both the nest and the row of iron spikes that anchored it because some of the residents had complained about the bird droppings and meal “leftovers” from the hawks’ diet of rodents and pigeons. Bird lovers—especially the New York City Audubon—were outraged, sparking protests and political speeches; actress Mary Tyler Moore (who lived in the building) even came out to support the hawks. The board finally relented, and Pale Male and Lola were allowed to rebuild their nest on the same spot. But even though Lola has laid eggs every year since then, none of them have hatched. Still, devoted (and optimistic) New Yorkers continue to track the hawks with binoculars and through telescopes set up in Central Park, hoping to spy new chicks.
WATCH YOUR STEP
Each spring and summer, a mile-long stretch of Rockaway Beach in Queens is declared off limits to everyone except a few Urban Park Rangers. The rangers’ mission is to keep New Yorkers away from the breeding ground of the piping plovers, a species that’s considered threatened in the Atlantic coastal area. In order to live and reproduce, these plump little grayish-white shorebirds need sandy beaches where they can find marine worms, beetles, mollusks, and other delicacies and where they can make nests and lay eggs safely.
What complicates their survival around humans is how effectively plovers use camouflage: Their nests (called scrapes) are small, barely noticeable depressions in the sand, often lined with bits of shell. Their eggs are speckled like sand, and their tiny hatched chicks are almost indistinguishable from the pebbles and twigs around the nests. One wrong step by a careless jogger could wipe out an entire plover home and family. Plovers were first discovered on Rockaway Beach in 1995, and with careful protection by the Urban Rangers, the rare bird’s population in Rockaway continues to increase.
The Empire State Buildings contains 1,860 steps from street level to the 102nd floor.