Central Park Birding 2

On Tuesday, our second day in New York, we spent 3 hours walking around Central Park on a guided birding walk with Birding Bob. Over the course of the walk, we managed to see and hear 42 species of bird, including 35 "lifers".

The walk started at the Turtle Pond, a small pond surrounded by reeds. Whilst here, we saw our first of  10 species of warbler. I tried to get shots of the warblers, and managed a few distant ones. The best were of the American Redstart, which were common, and seen throughout the walk.

American Redstart

 

We carried on around the park, into an area called The Ramble, where we spotted, amongst others, a nest-building Baltimore Oriole, our first of many Grey Catbirds, and a superb little Downy Woodpecker.

 

Baltimore Oriole (male)

 

Grey Catbird

 

Downy Woodpecker

 

The last bird to mention was my first ever species of hummingbird; a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We saw one on the walk, and Bob mentioned that, although it is a regular passage bird, no evidence has yet been found of this species breeding in the park. We only had brief views of the bird, but when I went back to another area of the park later, I spotted another bird that was in the process of nest building! I got in touch with Bob, who confirmed that this was the first ever record of breeding by this species in the park and in Manhattan!! Bob agreed to keep an eye on the nest, and let me know how the breeding attempt gets on. Meanwhile, here's a heavily cropped photo I managed of the bird on the nest.

 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird