MS 88 Birds!
#MS88Birds in solidarity with #BLACKBIRDERSWEEK
What is birding?
“Birding” or “bird-watching” simply means to search for and identify birds! It is also one of the best activities to explore during the COVID-19 pandemic. It’s socially distanced, and gets us outdoors. With over 200 species, there is a much greater diversity of birds in NYC than most NY’ers realize!
Why go birding this week?
On May 25th, Christian Cooper, a black bird-watcher was peacefully enjoying Central Park’s “Ramble” (a popular birding area) when a dog-walker called the police on him, falsely accusing him of threatening her.
While #blacklivesmatter protests unfold in our city and across the nation over the death of George Floyd, a group of black scientists and naturalists have gotten together to start #blackbirdersweek, a celebration of black scientists, nature-enthusiasts, and bird-watchers!
Christian Cooper
What is #BlackBirdersWeek?
@hood_naturalist
How can I support #BlackBirdersWeek?
FAMILY BIRDING SCAVENGER HUNT:
Greenwood Cemetery in Sunset Park
Get outside (safely) and bird in solidarity with #BLACKBIRDERSWEEK
Did you know?
Sunset Park, Brooklyn is home to a major birding destination? Greenwood Cemetery, just blocks from MS 88, is not just an historic gravesite, it is home and habitat for dozens of bird species, including some very rare birds! Even better- Greenwood is open to the public!
The Scavenger Hunt: Your Mission
This scavenger hunt is focused on Greenwood Cemetery but can be completed in any area of NYC. It is designed to be done safely with your family any time that works for you.
The birds in the scavenger hunt are divided into three categories: mild, medium, and spicy based on how rare/difficult they are to find and identify. For a complete list of bird species in Greenwood, click here.
Before-you-Bird Checklist
Apps you can use
American Robin
Difficulty: Mild
How to Find This Bird:
Look for American Robins running across lawns or stalking earthworms in your yard or a nearby park. Since robins sing frequently, you can find them by listening for their clear, lilting musical whistles. In winter they may disappear from your lawn but could still be around. Look for flocks of them in treetops and around fruiting trees, and listen for their low cuck notes.
Mourning Doves
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
Look for pairs of Mourning Doves on telephone wires and similar perches throughout your neighborhood, or keep an eye on patches of bare ground, where the birds gather to stock up on seeds and grit. There are many of these birds in Greenwood Cemetery, and on fire escapes throughout NYC!
House Sparrow
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
The best way to find a House Sparrow is to visit an urban area and watch for a conspicuous, tame sparrow hopping on the ground (it might help to bring a sandwich or some birdseed). You can easily attract them with food and they may feed out of your hand. Sometimes you can find them bathing in the dirt!
European Starling
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
First brought to North America by Shakespeare enthusiasts in the nineteenth century, Starlings are common around cities and towns. Look in lawns, city parks and squares, and fields. They’ll be working their way across the grass, often moving in a slight zig-zag line and seeming to hurry as they stab their bills into the ground every step or two.
House Finch
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
You can find House Finches by looking around settled habitats, such as city parks, urban centers, residential backyards, farms, and forest edges. Gregarious and social, House Finches are found in noisy groups that are hard to miss if present. Look for House Finches feeding on the ground or at bird feeders, or perching high in nearby trees.
Canada Goose
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
The big, black-necked Canada Goose with its signature white chinstrap mark is a familiar and widespread bird of fields and parks. Thousands of “honkers” migrate north and south each year, filling the sky with long V-formations. But as lawns have proliferated, more and more of these grassland-adapted birds are staying put in urban and suburban areas year-round, where some people regard them as pests.
Black-Capped Chickadee
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
A bird almost universally considered “cute” thanks to its oversized round head, tiny body, and curiosity about everything, including humans. The chickadee’s black cap and bib; white cheeks; gray back, wings, and tail; and whitish underside with buffy sides are distinctive. Its habit of investigating people and everything else in its home territory, and quickness to discover bird feeders, make it one of the first birds most people learn.
Northern Cardinal
Difficulty: Mild
Find This Bird:
The brilliant red of a male Northern Cardinal calls attention to itself when males are around. You can also find cardinals by getting a sense of the warm, red-tinged brown of females – a pattern you can learn to identify in flight. Away from backyards, cardinals are still common but inconspicuous owing to their affinity for dense tangles. Listen for their piercing chip notes to find where they are hiding.
Blue Jay
Difficulty: MEDIUM
Find This Bird:
Look to the trees! Blue Jays are most often detected by their noisy calls. Near shorelines they migrate in loose flocks; you can recognize them by their steady flight, rounded wings, long tail, and white underside. Resident birds may associate in flocks; they usually fly across open areas one at a time, often silently. Also watch for them at feeders.
Northern Mockingbird
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
If you’ve been hearing an endless string of 10 or 15 different birds singing outside your apartment, you might have a Northern Mockingbird on your block.
Look for Northern Mockingbirds sitting high on tall shrubs, poles, or utility lines. Around your yard, you can also look for them running or hopping along your mowed lawn. You may be able to first identify the presence of a Northern Mockingbird by listening for its song which usually mimics numerous other birds at once.
Monk Parakeet
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
Greenwood Cemetery is famed for its Monk Parakeets, which make their home in the tall spires of its gates. Monk parrots are just under a foot long and stocky with dark blue wings, pink-tipped tails, and grey monk-like hoods. They are native to Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Argentina, but are rumoured to have arrived in Brooklyn in the 1960’s after escaping from the pet trade!
Barn Swallow
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
Look for Barn Swallows feeding above meadows, fields, and farmyards and over water, or perched on wires near feeding areas and nesting sites. During the breeding season keep an eye on mud puddles, as Barn Swallows come to the ground to pick up mud and grass for nesting materials. Their mud nests are often tucked under on structures near playing fields, or under bridges. You can find Barn Swallows across most of North America.
Gray Catbird
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
Listen for the distinctive mew call of the Gray Catbird, or for its imitation of several species during a long, seemingly improvised series of notes. When the male is singing, look for him at the top of a dense, tangled thicket. Gray Catbirds will also often come to investigate if you make a "pishing" sound when they are in the area.
Northern Flicker
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
To find Northern Flickers, try walking through open woods or forest edges, but scan the ground. You may flush a flicker from a feeding spot up into a nearby tree. Look for the obvious white rump patch in flight. Also, be sure to listen for their loud, ringing call and their piercing yelp. In late summer, listen for the incessant yammering of hungry nestlings to find a nest
Downy Woodpecker
Difficulty: Medium
Find This Bird:
Look for Downy Woodpeckers in the trees in residential areas, and city parks. Be sure to listen for the characteristic high-pitched pik note and the descending whinny call. In flight, look for a small black and white bird with an undulating flight path. During winter, check mixed-species flocks and don’t overlook Downy Woodpeckers among the nuthatches and chickadees – Downy Woodpeckers aren’t much larger than White-breasted Nuthatches.
Red-Tailed Hawk
Difficulty: Spicy
Find This Bird:
Keep your eyes peeled along fenceposts and in the sky. Chances are good that the first hawk you see will be a Red-tailed Hawk. Just make sure to look for the buteo shape (broad, rounded wings; short tail), then check field marks like the dark bars on the leading edge of the wing. Across most of the continent, Red-tails are more numerous in winter, when birds from the far north arrive to join the birds that live in your area year round.
American Kestrel
Difficulty: Spicy
Find This Bird:
North America’s littlest falcon, the American Kestrel packs a predator’s fierce intensity into its small body. It's one of the most colorful of all raptors: the male’s slate-blue head and wings contrast elegantly with his rusty-red back and tail; the female has the same warm reddish on her wings, back, and tail.
Scan fence posts, utility lines and telephone poles, particularly when driving through farmland
Baltimore Oriole
Difficulty: Spicy
Find This Bird:
Aim your eyes high when looking for Baltimore Orioles. They’re most often seen perched at the tops of trees or flitting through the upper foliage in search of insects. Listen for their distinctive chatter, which is unlike the call of any other bird where orioles occur. Noisy nestlings may alert you to a nest site high off the ground.
Black-and-white Warbler
Difficulty: Spicy
Find This Bird:
Black-and-white Warblers are fairly common and often intent on foraging along tree limbs, so they don’t tend to be shy. Watch for them creeping fairly rapidly on, around, and under larger branches of taller trees. Black-and-white Warblers are also quite vocal. Their song is thin, almost squeaky, but penetrating, so it’s a good way to find them. Watch for them during migration (especially early in the season): at least one or two are typically found in any reasonably good arrival of migrant warblers.
Wilson’s Warbler
Difficulty: Spicy
Find This Bird:
Wilson’s Warblers breed mainly in the far north, so for many people they're easiest to find during migration. Spring can be the best time, as males often sing during migration. Look for them in shrubby tangles along streams or ponds or even forested edges and take a moment to listen for their rapid song. Unlike most warblers, they tend to forage at lower levels which makes finding them easier; no neck craning needed. The only real challenge is getting them in your binoculars. They don’t tend to stay still for long, so watch carefully and have your binoculars ready.
Cedar Waxwing
Difficulty: SPICY
Find This Bird:
Cedar Waxwings are often heard before they’re seen, so learn their high-pitched call notes. Look for them low in berry bushes, high in evergreens, or along rivers and over ponds. Be sure to check big flocks of small birds: waxwings are similar to starlings in size and shape, and often form big unruly flocks that grow, shrink, divide, and rejoin like starling flocks.
Scarlet Tanager
Difficulty: SPICY
Find This Bird:
During spring migration and summer, listen for the raspy, robin-like song of the male Scarlet Tanager in mature deciduous forest in the East. They like to stay high in the trees, but if you are patient and keep looking up, you’ll probably see a flash of brilliant red as the male changes song perches or goes after an insect. During late summer and fall migration, Scarlet Tanagers often join mixed flocks of other songbirds to feed. If you can learn this bird’s distinctive chick-burr call note, it’s very useful for finding both males and females.
Share your observations!