My Favorite Sparrow

    I wrote last winter about some interesting birds living around the Central Park Zoo where I work. I have always noticed one male house sparrow with piebald coloration especially on his primary feathers (the long feathers at the wing tips). I have literally seen him at least 1-2 times per week since I began working there in November of 2011. I love seeing him and his blaze of white when he flies. I had my camera on me today and as I left work, I was able to snap some photos of him as he showed off his awesome and unique plumage...

Showing off. 

I didn't realize the blaze of white also present on his "shoulder." That is anatomically though equivalent to our wrist.

... And he also has a little white collar too!

... And tail feathers!

I worked with a small group of teens every Saturday and during one of our birdwatching activities, I mentioned this guy, and sure enough we saw him and the kids named him "Jack Sparrow." 

He has something yummy!

Blurry, but you can get a sense of how gorgeous this little common house sparrow is in flight... 

Cemetery Walk

     We are currently in "baby watch" mode as we prepare to welcome our future niece to the family, she is bound to make her appearance any day now, but in the meantime we have the chance to spend some time with visiting family. My mother-in-law stayed with us last night and she, my husband, and I went for a walk this afternoon in Greenwood Cemetery. The cemetery is always lovely to walk through with its impressive monuments, mausoleums, and beautiful views of Manhattan as it contains the highest point in Brooklyn. We had a lovely walk with some fun surprises, enjoy:

This scraggly young robin has his feather ruffled over something...

 

A mourning dove - named because it's call (commonly confused for an owl) sounds sad and mournful.

A dragonfly finds a very interesting sign to bask on. And the hill was indeed full of graves.

The rolling hills within the cemetery provide some amazing views.

Views of downtown Manhattan and the Freedom Tower.

No wonder dragonflies are amazing hunters, look at those eyes! He looks like a fighter pilot. This guy was so cute, he moved his head around a lot, he was looking at something interesting. 

Some of the dragonflies buzzing about were so large they cast very noticeable shadows on the ground.

The large clouds provided a neat background for this statue of the Roman Goddess Minerva, up near the Civil War Monument.

I heard a lot of squabbling and noise that sounded like upset mockingbirds, and then I saw not only the upset mockingbirds, but a red tailed hawk that was clearly upsetting them. In his talons (it was a small hawk- so I am going to assume it was male) you can see his prize, a squirrel.

Not a good quality picture, but the mockingbirds repeatedly took shots at him and hit him hard. The hawk just sat and let it happen. Mockingbirds are notoriously territorial, it doesn't matter how big or small, they don't pick on anything their own size, even people get attacked by nesting mockingbirds.

A mockingbird tells the hawk what's up, but the hawk seems to ignore. 

Always love seeing red tails, such cool birds!

I like how both statue and bird have found something interesting up above.

Brooklyn Parrots

     I always liked parrots, but now that I have my own parrot, I LOVE THEM, and slightly obsessed. I used to work with a quaker parrot (or monk parakeet, take your pick, but I tend to go with calling them quakers) when I worked for Audubon, her name was Jodi, and we bonded quite well. I loved her so much and was offered to take her home, but at the time, things were not right for that, so we parted ways - she does though have quite the good home with a coworker of mine from that time.
     Well, now that I live in Brooklyn, I am surrounded by quakers. The school I attended for my masters, Brooklyn College, is swarming with quakers. Sometimes I hear them out the window of our apartment or spot them flying overhead on the street. This evening, I made a bike ride over to the other side of Greenwood Cemetery to go photograph these adorable green balls of feathers at their home base. Enjoy:

Before seeing any of the quakers, I was distracted by this clearly upset mocking bird.

....Probably because there were three American Kestrels in the area.

The kestrels are part of the falcon family. They are the smallest falcons in the United States. They also happen to do quite well in urban environments.

Not sure, but I thought that this could be a family. This one seemed much more active than the other two. Perhaps the other two were getting lessons in how to capture prey.

The observers.

Kestrels are beautiful and one of the few raptors that are sexually dimorphic - that means the male and female look different from one another. The slate blue present on the wings tells me that this is a male kestrel.

A kestrel kerfuffel with an angry mockingbird ensues. Mockingbirds are notoriously territorial, even to the point where they will dive-bomb humans around their nesting area.

Then, the quakers arrived!

The quakers are nesting atop the main entrance on 5th avenue in Sunset Park Brooklyn.

Quakers build these large nests out of sticks. The nest is shared amongst many other pairs of quakers, allowing them to fit right into that NYC apartment living lifestyle.

The quaker is not native, they are from Argentina, in temperate regions of the country. New York also happens to be a temperate region, so these birds survive all through the winter. These birds were pets that have been released and now colonize many places within NYC. They were believed to have arrived in in the late 1960's to early '70's.

Not going to lie, I love having these guys in Brooklyn!

These birds don't cause too much trouble for the native species, as they do not use trees for nesting, they would rather use man-made structures. They are more of a problem to some people because nests that are built on transformers or electrical poles can sometimes catch fire and cause power outages.

The quakers parrot gets its name because of a common behavior involving quaking or bobbing the head. Many of the parrots further back on the lower branch they were doing this and getting fed by other individuals.

Psst.... I think we're being watched...

Some purple finches... I think.

Caught the kestrels flying by again, I loved this one against the clouds.

Quaker parrots will sometimes allow their fledged young to stick around and help tend to the nest and help with rearing siblings. 

Originally, when these birds arrived to historic Greenwood Cemetery the grounds crew tried to get rid of these birds and their huge nests. With time, it was decided that they could stay, for two reasons: first being, they keep away the pigeons and second, their droppings have no ill effect on the brownstone structure that is the entrance to the grounds, pigeon droppings had awful effects on the brownstone, so essentially, these quakers are helping to preserve the structure, in a weird way.

     If you are interested in seeing the Quakers, they are easy to find, go to Greenwood Cemetery and enter at 5th Avenue and 25th Street. Their nest is on the arch as you enter. You don't need to go far to find quakers, just follow your ears, they are loud and most likely nearby.