Bird sightings in the Greenbelt – an interactive feature

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper’s Hawks now breed in High Rock Park and Buck’s Hollow.

By Howard Fischer

Here is a list of birds that have been sighted in the Staten Island Greenbelt from 1968 to 2016.

Click on the bird names for a link to species information.

Canada Goose Mute Swan Wood Duck American Black Duck Mallard Ring-necked Duck (Ohrbach Lake) Bufflehead Hooded Merganser Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Ring-necked Pheasant (now very rare) Common Loon Pied-billed Grebe Double-crested Cormorant American Bittern (High Rock and Pouch) Great Blue Heron Great Egret Snowy Egret Little Blue Heron Green Heron Black-crowned Night-Heron Yellow-crowned Night-Heron (1968 in High Rock Swamp) Glossy Ibis Black Vulture (2000, 2005 rare) Turkey Vulture Osprey Mississippi Kite (June 5, 2005 – second record for Staten Island over Ohrbach Lake, observed by NYC Audubon led by Howie Fischer) Bald Eagle Golden Eagle (only one record in late fall) Northern Harrier Sharp-shinned Hawk Cooper’s Hawk (It now breeds in High Rock and Buck’s Hollow.) Northern Goshawk (adult October 1985) Red-shouldered Hawk Broad-winged Hawk Red-tailed Hawk American Kestrel Merlin Peregrine Falcon Common Moorhen (dead and prey of owl) American Coot Killdeer	Spotted Sandpiper Solitary Sandpiper Pectoral Sandpiper (Hourglass Pond, near Ohrbach Lake) Least Sandpiper Laughing Gull (overhead) Ring-billed Gull Herring Gull Great Black-backed Gull Mourning Dove Yellow-billed Cuckoo (breeds) Black-billed Cuckoo Eastern Screech-Owl (breeds – a real specialty for the five boroughs as it is not an introduced population) Great Horned Owl Common Nighthawk Chimney Swift Ruby-throated Hummingbird Belted Kingfisher (Ponds or lake in the Greenbelt) Red-headed Woodpecker (rare spring sightings) Yellow-bellied Sapsucker Downy Woodpecker Hairy Woodpecker Northern Flicker Pileated Woodpecker (2007 accepted record of a pair and another 1985 record, which is questioned but most likely accurate) Olive-sided Flycatcher (High Rock Swamp) Eastern Wood-Pewee Yellow-bellied Flycatcher Acadian Flycatcher (confirmed breeding in July 2008 after a long absence in the metropolitan region) Least Flycatcher Great Crested Flycatcher Eastern Kingbird White-eyed Vireo Yellow-throated Vireo Blue-headed Vireo Warbling Vireo Philadelphia Vireo Red-eyed Vireo (breeds in summer, a long distance migrant) Blue Jay American Crow Fish Crow
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Purple Martin (overhead) Tree Swallow (breeds in summer) Northern Rough-winged Swallow Bank Swallow (Moravian cemetery) Barn Swallow Black-capped Chickadee Boreal Chickadee (One 1981-82 record and older records) Eastern Tufted Titmouse Red-breasted Nuthatch White-breasted Nuthatch Brown Creeper Carolina Wren House Wren Winter Wren Golden-crowned Kinglet Ruby-crowned Kinglet Blue-gray Gnatcatcher Veery Gray-cheeked Thrush Bicknell’s Thrush (A bird was banded at High Rock in 1985) Swainson’s Thrush Wood Thrush American Robin Gray Catbird Northern Mockingbird Brown Thrasher European Starling American Pipit Cedar Waxwing Blue-winged Warbler Golden-winged Warbler Tennessee Warbler Nashville Warbler Northern Parula Yellow Warbler Chestnut-sided Warbler Magnolia Warbler Cape May Warbler Black-throated Blue Warbler Yellow-rumped Warbler Black-throated Green Warbler Blackburnian Warbler Yellow-throated Warbler (rare-one Pouch Camp record) Pine Warbler Prairie Warbler Palm Warbler	Bay-breasted Warbler Blackpoll Warbler Cerulean Warbler Black-and-white Warbler American Redstart Prothonotary Warbler Worm-eating Warbler Ovenbird Northern Waterthrush Louisiana Waterthrush Kentucky Warbler Mourning Warbler Common Yellowthroat Hooded Warbler Wilson’s Warbler Canada Warbler Yellow-breasted Chat Summer Tanager Scarlet Tanager Eastern Towhee American Tree Sparrow Chipping Sparrow Field Sparrow Fox Sparrow Song Sparrow Lincoln’s Sparrow White-throated Sparrow White-crowned Sparrow Dark-eyed Junco Northern Cardinal Rose-breasted Grosbeak Blue Grosbeak (The first documented breeding for this species in New York State was in the Buck’s Hollow hill in the Greenbelt in 1982) Indigo Bunting Red-winged Blackbird Rusty Blackbird Common Grackle Orchard Oriole Baltimore Oriole Purple Finch House Finch Red Crossbill White-winged Crossbill (1982) Common Redpoll Pine Siskin American Goldfinch Evening Grosbeak House Sparrow

Posted in Nature Notes and tagged Birding, birds