3/5/10 Kissena Park and Flushing Meadows
Pied-Billed Grebe
Coots
Peregrine Falcon - juvenile
Red-Tailed Hawk
Mallards
Canada Geese
Brants
Northern Shovelers
Hooded Mergansers
Barnyard Ducks
Weird Goose
Double-Crested Cormorants
Black Backed Gull
Ring-Billed Gull
Herring Gull - juvenile
Red-Bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
American Robins
Common Grackles
Red-Winged Blackbirds
European Starlings
Mourning Dove
3/19/10 Bronx Zoo Trip *thanks to Jackie for this list
1 Mute Swans
2 Red-breasted Merganser male and female
3 Crows
4 White throated bee-eater
5 Egyptian plover
6 Crested wood partridge
7 Grey-headed lovebirds
8 Keel-billed toucan
9 Quetzal female
10 Great Argus male and female
11 Guira Cuckoo
12 Crested Tinamou
13 Gold and green tanager
14 Cuban Amazon
15 Guam Kingfisher
16 Red bird of paradise
17 Pheasant pigeon
18 Lesser bird of paradise
19 Luzon bleeding heart pigeon
20 Nicobar pigeon
21 Racquet-tailed roller
22 Red billed Leiothrix
23 Red Bishop
24 Speckled Mousebird
25 Magpie Shrike
26 Splendid Sunbird
27 Taveta golden weaver
28 Carmine bee-eater
29 Button quail
30 Blue-fronted amazon
31 Saffron finch
32 Bali Maynah
33 Mauritus Pink Pigeon
34 Great aracari toucan
35 Helmeted currasow
36 Northern oriole
37 Cedar waxwing
38 Eastern phoebe
39 Common flicker (northern flicker)
40 Eastern kingbird
41 Common bobwhite
42 Scarlet Tanager
43 Chestnut-sided warbler
44 American goldfinch
45 Northern water thrush
46 Rose breasted grosbeak
47 Bearded barbet
48 Crested Coua
49 Blue bellied roller
50 Snowy headed robin chat
51 Congo Peafowl
52 Long tailed hornbill
53 Amethyst starling
54 African pygmy goose
55 Blue crowned motmot
56 Sunbittern
57 Lady ross turaco
58 Blue gray tanager
59 Rosy starling
60 Red crested cardinal
61 Montezuma Oreopendula
62 Palawan peacock pheasant
63 Black napped fruit dove
64 Victoria-crowned pigeon
65 Green jungle fowl female
66 Pied-imperial pigeon
67 Ocellated turkey
68 Black-capped social weaver
69 Great blue turaco
70 Toco Toucan
71 Green wood hoopoe
72 Emu
73 White napped crane
74 American robin
75 Common goldeneye male and female
76 Ruddy ducks male and female
77 Wood duck
78 Canvasback male and female
79 Redhead canvasback male and female
80 Common merganser
81 Bluejay
82 Rock dove
83 Red wing blackbird
84 Black-necked crane
85 House sparrows
86 Peacock male and female
87 Monk parakeets
88 Black-crowned night heron
89 Bald eagle
90 Snowy owl
91 Downy woodpecker male
92 Barred owl
93 Cinerous vulture
94 Andean Condor
95 Golden eagle
96 Flamingoes
97 Purple swamphen
98 Boat-billed heron
99 Buff-necked ibis
100 Roseate spoonbill
101 Scarlet Ibis
102 Brown pelican
103 Freckled duck
104 Pied Avocet
105 Bahama pintail
106 White pelican
107 Anhinga
108 Indian pygmy goose
109 Honey creeper
110 Black oystercatcher
111 Bufflehead
112 Forster’s Tern
113 Common tern
114 Tufted puffin
115 Grosbeak starling
116 Snowy egret
117 Tawny frogmouth
118 Laughing Kookaburra
119 Superb glossy starling
120 Blue breasted kingfisher
121 Madagascar crested ibis
122 Storm’s stork
123 Guanay cormorant
124 Laughing gull
125 Magellanic penguin
126 Inca tern
Note: Birds are in order of appearance
Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: Kingfishers
Dr. Sperling pointed out how Kingfishers (the kind around here is the Belted Kingfisher) burrow into river banks to make their nests, like little caves.
Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: The Bird Trade
We saw an exhibit about the exotic bird trade and how parrots are caught in places like Belize and Brazil to be sold as pets. The exhibit said that 19 out of every 20 birds captured in the wild dies (i.e. only 1 out of 20 lives) due to stress, disease & temperature extremes experienced in transit. Dr. Sperling seemed to empathize with the people capturing the birds, stating that they are extremely poor. (Personally, I think they should be shot, along with the traffickers and the people who sell them in pet shops, AND the people who buy them...) I think they get paid something like $1 per bird by the traffickers. This is one of the reasons that many parrot species are endangered. An alternative offered by the exhibit was captive breeding. I have an idea: how about paying those people NOT to catch the birds and to report anyone who does?!?!
Notes from Bronx Zoo Trip: American Robins
Dr. Sperling made special mention of the Robins (Turdus migratorius) and how 2 parents can produce 60 offspring in their lives while only 2 ever survive to replace them. According to the exhibit on Robins, only 1/2 of the chicks ever leave the nest and 10 survive out of 100 to become breeding adults. (The numbers don't exactly match-up, but Dr. Sperling insisted that Robin parents only ever replace themselves, otherwise we'd be up to our eyeballs in Robins.)
He said to make note of how the babies die. Reasons for such high mortality include ants, foxes, weasels, etc. (eating babies from the nest), babies falling out of the nest (into water and drowning & onto ground and getting eaten by scavengers like Turkey Vultures, ants, etc.), babies getting lost during migration, among others. Crows are known to steal baby birds from nests as well. Also, if one or both parents are killed (by feral cats, window/car strike, hawk attack, poisoning, etc.) obviously the babies would have little chance of surviving. In Spring and Summer, Robins tend to fly low along the ground (often right in front of cars) since they are hunting for worms.
Also note that Robins are thrushes. The babies have streaked breasts just like other thrushes and only get the "red (orange) breast" as they mature (after 1st year?) Robins ARE protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but they don't really migrate that far. They tend to migrate locally in winter to areas with berry bushes.
Robins are commonly referred to as the "first bird of Spring," but this is not exactly true. You can often find Robins around here in the middle of winter if you search around enough. Eastern Phoebes are the true first bird of Spring, as mentioned by Dr. Sperling. They are the first to arrive among the real migrants, usually appearing by mid-March. Remember, they are fly catchers, so it has to be just warm enough for insects to be out. My mom said that when Robins are sighted on the ground, it is a "sign of Spring" because that means that the ground is warm enough for worms to start moving around. (Remember: Eastern Phoebes bob their tail.)
