Urban Hawks

April 14, 2025April 14, 2025Northwest Central Park Hawks

Feeding at 93rd Street Nest

A fellow birder let me know that they had seen feeding behavior at the 93rd Street (Wild West Playground) Red-tailed Hawk on Friday. I went on Saturday in the rain and wasn’t able to see a feeding but was able to on Sunday. It’s great to have another set of young hawks in the park! We should be able to see the eyasses (chicks) in a week or so.

For those who don’t know much about how to view this nest, which is difficult to view without a scope, see my old post from last year.

April 4, 2025Central Park Coyotes

More Central Park Coyote Images

I’ve been continuing to see at least one Eastern Coyote in the park over the last few days. What’s hard to say is how many coyotes we have in the park. They’re seen around the park from The Mount (aka Compost Heap) in the north, to Hallett Nature Sanctuary in the south, and often two are seen together. The question is how many do we have and when will they start to breed in the park. Rumors abound about them, including one where four pups were reported but I haven’t yet seen any good evidence yet.

April 4, 2025April 4, 2025Other Red-tailed Hawks

Randalls Island Red-tailed Hawk Nest

The Randalls Island Red-tailed Hawk nest on the Manhattan Psychiatric Center, found last year by Ben Cacace is active again this year. (See last year’s post for location details.)

The female was on the nest on Thursday. While I was there she got up, had a brief stretch before rolling her eggs, and settling back down on the nest.

March 28, 2025March 29, 2025Central Park Coyotes

Good Luck With The Coyotes

Over the last week, I’ve had some good luck running across the park’s Eastern Coyotes. I’ve seen both a single Eastern Coyote and a pair that decided to howl at a raccoon. It’s good to see them become a regular occurrence in the park.

March 22, 2025March 25, 2025Other Birds

Black-headed Gulls On The Reservoir

Birders patient enough to look through all of Central Park’s gulls have been rewarded with some rarities this winter. In January, we had a Short-billed Gull, Glaucous Gull, and a few Lesser Black-backed Gulls, Iceland Gulls and Black-headed Gulls. These gulls were in addition to our regular Ring-billed Gull, American Herring Gull and Greater Black-backed Gull species which we see daily during the winter.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve been seeing the return of some Black-headed Gulls. What’s unclear is how many different individuals we’re seeing. We’re seeing at least one in adult plumage and at least two different individuals in 1st cycle plumage, possibly three.

These are rare gulls, so on eBird to report them one is asked to include a picture and/or a description. What has been interesting to see this week is that some comments included the word “continuing”. I even used the word in a Discord post. While this made sense for the single Snow Goose and the pair of Common Mergansers that were seen on the reservoir consistently this winter, for this last week it doesn’t for the Black-headed Gulls. We’ve seen at least four different individuals this March.

Adults
The gull seen on March 16th and 20th could easily be the same gull transitioning to alternate plumage.

Adult – January 27

Adult, March 16

Adult – March 20

Sub-Adults
There are at least three different individuals being seen in March, maybe more. The gull seen on March 15 has a darker head than the ones seen later in March. Also the bird on March 18 has a tail that ends in a black band, while the others had a black subterminal band, with a thin bad of white at the tip of the tail.

What has been an interesting lesson for me is how different the head marking appears based on the posture of the bird and the light. The dark earspot can appear round when the head is raised and appear as a crescent when the bird is resting. Also, as the plumage changed, the darker feathers just coming in on the hood can be hidden or be seen depending on the angle or the light. Even the leg and the bill color changes depending on the light.

Sub-Adults – January 18

Sub-Adults – January 24

Sub-Adults – January 27

Sub-Adults – March 15

Sub-Adults – March 16

Sub-Adults – March 18

Sub-Adults – March 21

Sub-Adults – March 22

Sub-Adults – March 23

Sub-Adults – March 23

March 18, 2025March 18, 2025Central Park Coyotes

Central Park Coyote

I wanted to wait a week to post these photos to ensure the Coyote had moved on to a more private sleeping spot. Depending on who you talk to we have either two or more Coyotes in the park. I’ve seen two together in the northern end of the park and in the center of the park others often see two together. These could be the same animals or two pair.

Other large cities have Coyote populations in the hundreds, so I suspect over time we’ll have more Coyotes in Central Park and Manhattan. Despite their reputation as being a danger to pets and livestock, Eastern Coyotes generally try to avoid people.