Some people have said NYC is for the birds. They haven’t been to Bryant Park, where birds are so abundant that Bryant Park partners with the New York Audobon Society each spring to conduct FREE birding tours, starting this week.
This is the 11th year for the FREE tours, popular with both experienced birders and newcomers to check out the birds who use Bryant Park as a pit stop on their annual migrations north in the spring and south in the winter.
100+ Bird Species in Bryant Park
More than 120 bird species have been spotted in recent years, according to the Bryant Park bird spotting blog.
It’s amazing that so many species make a home in this dot of green, open space in the middle of Manhattan.
And, like their human counterparts, many more are tourists, visiting briefly, including the Savanna sparrow, which was seen in Bryant Park in 2017 for the first time in five years, plus a very rare Nelson’s sparrow and even a Chuck-will’s-widow.
New York City, after all, is on the North Atlantic fly over route, and a popular rest stop for our feathered friends making their way north or south in spring or fall.
FREE Spring Birding Tours Mondays and Thursdays
The Bryant Park Spring Birding Tours are one hour long, twice a week, Monday and Thursday, now through June.
The birding tours are FREE, but donations are accepted, either to the New York Audobon Society or to Bryant Park, or to both.
Mondays, Spring Birding Tours are 8am to 9am.
Thursdays, Spring Birding Tours are 5pm to 6pm.
Birding Tours depart from Heiskell Plaza (42nd Street and Sixth Avenue) on Mondays at 8am, and Thursdays at 5pm, through June 6. Tours typically last about an hour, but the birding expert who leads the tours has been known to linger a bit longer to spot more birds and answer questions.
Bring your own binoculars, or borrow a limited number of binoculars from Bryant Park.
Bird Species to Look For in Bryant Park
Click here for the weekly guide of what you might spot
Here’s a sample of the birds you can expect to see in the spring in Bryant Park, and thanks to the Audobon Society for this amazing list:
Rock pigeon
House sparrow
Gray catbird
White-throated sparrow
Song sparrow
Fox sparrow
European starling
Hermit thrush
Eastern towhee
American robin
Dark-eyed junco,
Yellow-bellied sapsucker
Savannah sparrow
Peregrine falcon
House wren
Ruby-crowned kinglet
Ovenbird
Brown thrasher
Black-and-white warbler
Palm warbler
White-throated sparrow
American kestrel
Eastern wood-pewee
Common yellow-throat
Northern waterthrush
Scarlet tanager
Black-throated Blue warbler
American redstart
Northern parula
Black-and-white warbler
Wood thrush
Veery
Yellow-rumped warbler
Swamp sparrow
Bryant Park Spring Birding Tours are in April/May/June, and return in September/October for the fall migration.
What do you think about this? We welcome your comments.