Prothonotary Warbler in Central Park
By Mike • April 26, 2008 • 13 commentsCorey and I visited Central Park this morning for some early spring birding. At this point in the season, a good day might be 8 species of warbler, rather than 20. We topped 8 just barely, but made up in quality what we lacked in quantity. The undisputed star of the show was a bird more yellow than a Yellow Warbler, more golden than a Golden-cheeked Warbler. The plumage of this warbler is so supernally luminous that conjures to mind the mantellettas of certain high-ranking Roman Catholic prelates. That’s right, I’m talking about the Prothonotary Warbler, a rare sighting in NYC:
This confiding charmer must have liked me as much as I liked him because we ran into each other not once, but twice throughout the morning. Other highlights of a most pleasant morning included Blackburnian Warbler, Blue-headed Vireo, Scarlet Tanager, 7 sparrow species, copulating Snapping Turtles, and a family of adorable Eastern Screech Owls, all in Central Park!
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hey - hey. Cracking bird guys…See if you can get it to hang around for a week until I get there eh?
grumble.. grumble. I was supposed to be there… grumble, stupid opening day of softball for my daughter… grumble… grumble…
@Charlie: We’ll do what we can…
@Will: It really was quite a day…but the birds will be there when you finally do make it down (granted, I doubt we’ll get looks at a Prothonotary like that again).
Kicking myself for getting sick today and missing these wonderful sightings, but, I’m very grateful for the reports (here and elsewhere) and the photographs.
I’ve yet to see a Prothontary or Cape May in my many years of birding in Central Park and this week, I’ve missed both.
Please tell me it isn’t too late and I still stand a chance of getting these two sights this Spring
Well, that just adds insult to the injury that I didn’t make it to Jamaica Bay or Alley Pond Park today because the Inimitable Todd’s bike got a flat.
Sweet bird, congratulations! Maybe it’ll hang in there until Monday…
[...] • April 27, 2008 • No comments yet Seeing as Mike has already stolen the thunder of our best birds of the day (well, he did get better pictures) I figured I would mention a couple of the other species that [...]
Nice day for sure! Maybe I should have taken the train in…
Carrie, we were calling you but I guess we weren’t loud enough!
I SO miss Prothonotaries here in Germany…
[...] some friends) met up for only the second time to go birding together and then two of us at a time met up for some birding as well. Not only that but we birded Westchester County, the Sime Forest of [...]
I saw my first Prothonotary last summer. Such amazing color. Unforgettable!
[...] Mike’s charming warble, Prothonotary Warbler in Central Park, at 10,000 Birds is beautifully done with some Screeches at the [...]
[...] Take, for example, the House Wren. I can say with confidence that I have encountered House Wrens on 21 birding excursions this year, the first on the 26th of April in Central Park and most recently the one above at Jamaica Bay on the 10th of August, and it took me about five seconds to gather that data. Not only that but I can then see that on the outing to Central Park where I spotted my first House Wren of the year I was joined by Mike and spotted a total of sixty species, including a Prothonotary Warbler. [...]