Prospect Park

Come down a little closer, Scarlet Tanager! The bright morning sun is making your tail shine. Uh, yeah, like that, Piranga olivacea, male of.Meanwhile, in the grass, a male Bobolink (Dolichonyx oryzivorus). These are far more common in farm and prairie country than here in Brooklyn. I only saw my first a few years ago,…

A Green Heron (Butorides virescens) was wrestling with a big fish it had caught today at the Upper Pool. I’ve seen other herons/egrets and cormorants working on big fish before. You hardly imagine they will be able to swallow their prey, but they almost always do. This must be enough food for the day.I saw…

A Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) was on Prospect Lake today. They are not uncommon in Jamaica Bay during the winter months, but don’t visit interior Brooklyn very often. Among the most abundant waterfowl on the continent, Snow Geese are often seen in huge numbers on fallow fields and wetlands.

The Rusty Blackbird (Euphagus carolinus) is a species in deep trouble. According to the International Rusty Blackbird Working Group, the species has shown “chronic long-term and acute short-term population declines,” more so than any other species we see. The numbers are startling, with a population plummet from 85-95% over the last century. The reason for…

A Belted Kingfisher (Megaceryle alcyon) was patrolling some of the un-iced water in Stranahan-Olmsted-Vaux’s park over the long weekend.This is a male. Male birds are typically more colorful than females, but this isn’t the case with this species. M. alcyon females have a rusty band below the blue collar-like markings, the “belt” of their common…

Get a load of the schnoze on this Northern Shoveler (Anas clypeata). This is one of the dabbling duck species, straining tiny crustaceans, plankton, and seeds from the surface of the water. These long bills have comb-like filters on them. This is a male, but not yet in full breeding plumage, which, like the large…

This male Scarlet Tanager (Piranga olivacea), in his subdued non-breeding plumage, was capturing wasps on Lookout Hill during fall migration. These birds are usually pretty high up in the trees, but this one was acting like a flycatcher not so far above eye-level.