What's In Flight
December 2025
Yellow-throated Warbler by Jay Zemann
This fall in Carl Schurz Park has been one of the most exciting on record, largely due to the unexpected appearance, during Thanksgiving week, of seven colorful warblers, who were easy to spot drinking sap and picking insects off the trees near the Catbird Playground.
Nashville Warbler by Richard P Nelson
During Fall migration, warblers usually only stop in our park for a day or two to feed and rest. Most are gone by the end of October, having moved on to their wintering grounds in Florida, and Central and Southern America. But six of these colorful warblers have been here for nearly a month and are attracting birders from all four boroughs and beyond (one woman from Westchester, brought her sister, who had just arrived from Florida. ‘We’d rather do this than shopping,’ she said).
Yellow-throated Warbler by Larry Gaugler
The star attraction is a Yellow-throated Warbler. ‘It is pretty rare to see one in Manhattan,’ according to Gabriel Willow, a naturalist who leads bird walks all over the city. ‘I usually only see one every year or two. They are hard to spot as they are often high up in the tree canopy.’ This is the first year this species has been sighted in Carl Schurz Park. At the start of Thanksgiving week, birders saw two of these beautiful yellow-throated birds, with their streaky black and white bodies, flitting between the Osage orange tree and the elm trees by the entrance to the Catbird Playground (between 85th and 86th Streets). This increased the park’s list of bird species to 170. ‘It’s an amazing number for such a small park,’ says Gabriel Willow. For perspective, Central Park’s 40-acre, densely forested, North Woods (considered a top birding spot in the city) lists 178 bird species. Just two years ago, Carl Schurz Park listed 150 species. It is in part a tribute to the park’s healthy biodiversity that our numbers are increasing so rapidly.
Nashville Warbler by Yoming Lin
Adding to the excitement are two pretty Nashville Warblers with their bright yellow bellies, olive green backs and white eye rings, who have been drinking from the same sap wells as the Yellow-throated Warblers. Elm sap is a sugary high calorie food loved by birds, insects and squirrels. It is abundantly available in the fall thanks to our Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers who drill sap holes in the elm, birch and maple trees.
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker by Jay Zemann
Elm tree sap runs freely in spring and fall, when there are warm days and cool nights. The warmth expands gases inside the tree that push sap up from the roots and the cool nights cause suction, drawing water in and down. The elm sap will stop running when the trees become dormant in winter, says Gabriel Willow. Then the sap becomes sugary and viscose and acts like nature’s anti-freeze. It protects the living cells in the tree from forming damaging ice crystals. Luckily, our visiting Warblers are also feasting on the park’s abundant insect population. ‘Most likely they are eating some stages of eggs of spiders or aphids, and the pupa of caterpillars,’ says Gabriel Willow.
Orange-crowned Warbler by Yoming Lin
Almost every year since 2019, an Orange-crowned Warbler has been spotted during the winter months and into spring (from November to May). No one knows if it’s the same bird or different ones. This year, birders have again sighted an Orange-crowned Warbler, an olive-green bird with an orange patch on its head which the bird flashes when it is excited. Typically, Orange-crowned Warblers migrate south in the fall to Mexico, Guatemala or Belize. But Gabriel Willow says the Orange-crowned Warbler is one of the hardier warblers, who can withstand winter in New York. They are often seen in patches of dry Goldenrod (an abundant native plant in our park). Paul Sweet, Collection Manager of the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History had an Orange-crowned Warbler overwinter in his Brooklyn backyard last year. ‘It liked peanuts,’ he reports.
Yellow-rumped Warbler by Richard P Nelson
A pair of Yellow-rumped Warblers (sometimes called ‘butter butts’ because of the bright yellow patch above the tail) were also seen flitting around the park into the third week of December. These tiny birds are the most common warblers in the US. Their appearance is less surprising than the other warblers, as they are early migrants in the spring and late migrants in fall, who sometimes over winter in microclimates around New York City.
More new species and sightings in the park.
Monk Parakeet by Jean-Marie Gradot
A bright green Monk Parakeet with a pink beak, gray face and gray monk’s cap, was spotted in our park in August. Monk Parakeets are a well-established, feral bird species in New York City. Brooklyn’s Greenwood Cemetery has a vocal colony living in the Gothic spires of its gatehouse. These parakeets, originally come from South America. Legend has it New York’s population developed in the 1960s after a crate of Monk Parakeets (destined for the pet industry) broke open at JFK airport. These bright green birds are famous for their bulky stick nests, which are used year-round and can house up to 200 birds. Colony roosting helps them survive New York’s cold winter months.
Northern Shoveler duck by Tom Christensen
One of the reasons for the large number of bird species sighted in and around Carl Schurz Park is our location by the East River. Migrating birds use rivers as landmarks when flying long distance. Also, birders can spot a large number of gulls, ducks, geese, herons and even mute swans from the river walk. This December, a birder identified four Northern Shoveler ducks with their distinctive green heads and long, black, shovel shaped bills, which act like a sieve, straining small swimming crustaceans out of the water.
Wood Duck by Jay Zemann
The male Wood Duck in his breeding plumage is quite a sight with his iridescent green and purple head, red eye and burgundy breast, however the female is the opposite, a dowdy brownish-gray, perfectly camouflaged for the important job of sitting on the nest. The first Wood Duck was sighted flying over the park this fall.
‘The Ghost’ a Leucistic House Sparrow by Jay Zemann
House Sparrows sometimes have a genetic condition that causes them to lose pigment in their feathers, giving them a patchy white look. A couple of Leucistic House Sparrows have been observed in the park. This predominantly white one, nicknamed ‘the ghost’, was spotted and named by Jay Zemann.
Western Tanager by Gig Palileo
When the first snow arrived on December 14, the Nashville, Yellow-throated, Orange-crowned and Yellow-rumped warblers were still here and thriving. Carl Schurz Park with its protective microclimate (buffered by buildings on three sides) and abundant bird feeders, has a history of successfully sheltering stray warblers. Famously over two winters, from 2020-2022, we had a bright yellow Western Tanager, nicknamed Aurora or Tweety (depending on the birder) over-wintering here until spring, instead of flying south to the warmer climes of Mexico and Costa Rica.
Gabriel Willow thinks our current crop of warblers are late migrants and not strays, and that they may retreat further south when the tree sap stops running. ‘They will take off and head south if need be. Flying overnight for 12-14 hours at 25 mph, they could be in Florida in a couple of nights.’ But cold weather, strong winds and storms could make this journey perilous. To help our visiting warblers, and the 30 species that regularly over winter in Carl Schurz Park, the conservancy has put out suet and mealworms feeders at the entrance to the Catbird Playground and by Gracie Mansion - great spots to watch all our birds play and feed throughout the winter.
Words: Lucie Young
Images and videos:
Jay Zemann, Richard P Nelson, Yoming Lin, Larry Gaugler, Gig Palileo,
Jean-Marie Gradot, Tom Christensen
Links:
Ebird.org is a free website, created by the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where you can explore and submit bird sightings for birding global hot spots such as Carl Schurz Park
Check out our previous edition of What's in Flight