Members of the MSNH met on May 17th with Dr. Lukas Musher (Drexel University), exploring the marvelous spring migration taking place at Central Park. Each year, birds of all feathers, which overwintered in Central and South America, start to arrive in Central Park. For most, Central Park is a service area, not unlike those found along highways, but clearly much prettier – it’s a place to take a safe break, to recover, replenish and as recent research has shown, also a place to reconnect.
With binoculars in our hands, we ventured into Central Park’s famous ramble, which was unusually quiet, as the weather forecast predicted rain – but alas, the weather gods mean it well with us. Instead of rain, we saw spectacular birds – some resident but most transient, visiting for a few days, before taking off to find their breeding grounds further north. What a lovely morning!
We would like to thank Dr. Luke Musher for sharing his expert knowledge & excitement. For more details on Dr. Musher’s interesting research on birds – with a focus on the Neotropics - please see:
Dr. Luke Musher is a research scientist at Drexel University. He completed his Ph.D. at the Richard Gilder Graduate School of the American Museum of Natural History studying how biodiversity originates in the tropics. His research focuses on the evolutionary history of birds in the Amazon rainforest, which is the most biodiverse ecosystem on the planet. Dr. Musher has been birding for more than fifteen years, and during that time he has travelled all over the United States and Latin America for both research and bird watching. Still, he loves birding in New York, and no place compares to the numbers seen in Central Park during migration season.
To view more photos from this event, please visit our gallery. Photo credit goes to Harald Parzer.
List of species (https://ebird.org/checklist/S239203666):
Redstart
Chestnut-sided warbler
Blue Jay
Canada warbler
Ovenbird
American robin
Black and white warbler
Black-throated blue warbler
Magnolia warbler
Northern waterthrush
Swainson’s thrush (call)
Wood thrush
Cardinal
Pee wee
Wood thrush
Veery
Red eye vireo
Downy woodpecker
Common yellowthroat
Common grackle
Red-bellied woodpecker
Baltimore oriole
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