Bronx Backyard Bird List

Backyard birdwatchers have it easy. They can just sit back on their fancy verandas sipping mint juleps while a cavalcade of birds flaunt themselves in succession. Urban birders actually have to leave their homes to spot anything but pigeons. However, thanks to a cosmic convergence of geography and good fortune, Mike once lived in an apartment from which interesting birds could actually be seen.

A Room with a View... of the Bronx

The picture above is the view from our living room window, what I see from the computer. We are five stories up and overlook a school. Beyond the luxury building in white is the Hudson River. That large tree in the foreground is a popular perch for all kinds of birds. The rules of this list are simple: we can only count birds we see from our apartment. We may move to a different window as long as it looks out over the same view. This Bronx Backyard bird list will be updated regularly as a testament to the unexpected biodiversity of our favorite borough.

There are now 36 birds on this list, with the latest one (Snow Goose) added December 8, 2006.

  1. American Crow
  2. American Goldfinch
  3. American Kestrel
  4. American Robin
  5. Bald Eagle
  6. Baltimore Oriole
  7. Barn Swallow
  8. Black-capped Chickadee
  9. Blue Jay
  10. Canada Goose
  11. Chimney Swift
  12. Common Grackle
  13. Cooper’s Hawk
  14. Dark-eyed Junco
  15. Double-crested Cormorant
  16. Downy Woodpecker
  17. Eastern Kingbird
  18. European Starling
  19. Great Blue Heron
  20. Herring Gull
  21. House Finch
  22. House Sparrow
  23. Great Black-backed Gull
  24. Mourning Dove
  25. Northern Cardinal
  26. Northern Mockingbird
  27. Osprey
  28. Peregrine Falcon
  29. Red-tailed Hawk
  30. Red-bellied Woodpecker
  31. Ring-billed Gull
  32. Rock Pigeon
  33. Sharp-shinned Hawk
  34. Snow Goose
  35. Tufted Titmouse
  36. White-breasted Nuthatch