Fall Birds in City Hall Park - Local Nature Lab Surveys

 

Recently my colleague Sara Ogger and I have been conducting monthly, early morning, bird and animal surveys in City Hall Park as part of a volunteer project organized by the Local Nature Lab – in coordination with the Friends of City Hall Park and the City Hall Park Conservancy. 

localnaturelab.org, cityhallparknyc.org, chpc-nyc.org

After the morning patrols, we report the numbers and types of species in different sectors of the park, and that information gets compiled by Local Nature Lab members, together with sightings from other downtown parks. The goal is to use this information to make recommendations for improvements on long-term park management and sustainability. 

The monthly surveys don’t include all the different birds passing through, or living in, the park. They are just snapshots, but over time they can provide useful conservation data. 

We also record sightings of squirrels, rodents, and damaging off-leash dogs. (Another aspect of the survey activity involves observations of particular trees throughout the year to document changes and stressors over time, including from shifting climate conditions. Rella Stuart-Hunt Wurmfeld (Pip) is working on that part of the survey in City Hall Park.)

Winter Wren

The most interesting bird for me in the park this fall was a tiny Winter Wren. It was the first time I had seen one. Sara spotted it on the edge of some low plantings near the north side of City Hall. They nest further north in the US and Canada, and some come to spend the winter in NYC, finding insects and berries on the ground.   

There were also a few migratory warblers moving south, including a female American Redstart. These birds will flit around flashing their tails to scare up insects. 

                                                                                                                         

American Redstart

A female or immature Black-throated Blue Warbler was well-camouflaged on the ground. 

The adult males are the ones that are actually blue, but both sexes have small, white triangular patches on the edges of their wings. 

Black-throated Blue Warbler 

   

Yellow-rumped Warblers are among the last ones to pass through in the fall on their way south. Some of them linger into November. 

Yellow-rumped Warbler

An Ovenbird is a larger type of warbler (4-6 inches long) that usually travels further north for breeding, though some have been reported nesting in some city parks that are more densely wooded and less populated. They like to forage on a forest floor, which we are missing downtown. These birds will move south to spend the winter in Mexico or the Caribbean. 

Ovenbird

A Hermit Thrush is somewhat similar to the Ovenbird in size and style, and foraging habits. 

In City Hall Park, they are common fall and spring migrants that only stop by for short stays.  

 

Hermit Thrush

An American Robin is also a type of thrush, but larger and redder and more common in the city. 

Some migrate short distances in the winter but others stay and find berries and bugs to eat in the parks.

American Robin

House Sparrows are common year-round residents.  

House Sparrow

But we also saw several other types of sparrows. 

Chipping Sparrow

Song Sparrow

                                            

White-throated Sparrow

Junco   



European Starlings frequently occupy and/or nest in tree holes, especially in London Planes. 

European Starling

And pigeons (Rock Doves) are all over in the park, in the trees, on the statues, feeding on berries, or seeds on the ground, or being fed by people.

 

Mourning Doves are related to the pigeons, but less common in the park. They mostly eat seeds so aren’t very interested in people’s food.  

Mourning Dove

One day there was a brief appearance by a Red-bellied Woodpecker. 

They are common nesting residents in New York City, but unusual in City Hall Park.  

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Early in the summer,  we saw a pair of American Crows attempting to make a nest in a building next to City Hall Park. It didn’t seem to work out for them, but there are often a few hanging around the park.

City Hall Park is not usually a hot spot for birding, but I live across the street and am very happy to be able to see so many birds in a park so close to home. 

I have even made small banners from my bird photos and they are now hanging along the fence north of City Hall as a NY Parks art exhibit. 

You can check them out as you pass by, and maybe be inspired to look for real birds in the park.  

Fall Bird Walks - Foraging in The Battery

Late Summer 2026 Sightings at Edgemere Nature Reserve and Fort Tilden

 

Oystercatchers, Piping Plovers and Shark-eating Gulls on the Beaches - June 2026

 

One of my favorite summer activities is taking the subway, bus or ferry to the beach along what one of my friends calls the ‘Queens Riviera’. The long central expanse of Rockaway Beach is under NYC Parks jurisdiction, while towards the west Jacob Riis Park and Fort Tilden are within the federal Gateway National Recreational Area. Towards Far Rockaway, NYC Parks has created the relatively new Arverne East Nature Preserve. 

Each of these areas now marks off certain areas to provide protection for nesting shorebirds. Members of the NYC Bird Alliance and the NYC Plover Project assist with these protection activities, monitoring the nests and educating residents and visitors about the importance of maintaining this habitat for vulnerable species. nycbirdalliance.org. nycploverproject.org

One a wide swath on bare sand by Riis Park, tiny lean-tos provide shade for American Oystercatchers, which just scrape out an indentation in the hot sand as a space to lay their eggs. The hatched chicks seem to be grateful for the shelter. Over at the adjacent Fort Tilden beach, the oystercatchers can catch a little natural shade among the dune grasses.

The oystercatcher parents take turns gathering food, mostly crustaceans from the water’s edge, and bringing snacks back to the young ones. 

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The tiny piping plovers hide their nests up among the grasses in the dunes, and are usually only visible when they come to the shoreline for small crustaceans, insects and worms.  

The piping plover chicks, however, don’t get the same food service as the baby oystercatchers. As soon as they hatch, they have to forage for their own food down along the water’s edge. That’s why closing the beach area between the nests and the shoreline is so important. They are practically invisible as they run back and forth. 

Down by Arverne, the gulls were dominating the fenced off stretch of protected beach, along with a few oystercatchers coming down from nests up in the dune grasses. 

The big excitement in the adjacent unrestricted part of the beach involved fishermen catching small sharks called Smooth Dogfish. 

They generally are about three feet long and have small flat teeth for grinding up crustaceans and small fish. They are not endangered and the fishermen take home the larger ones to eat. Some smaller ones were left on the beach.  

Someone had cut off a dogfish head and left it on the beach near the gulls. A juvenile Great Black-backed Gull spent a lot of time picking at it, despite its forbidding appearance.  

I felt a bit sad about the dogfish, even though the gulls and the fishermen did get to eat.  

Tiny Sunset Cove Park on Broad Channel in Jamaica Bay Has Lots of Birds - June 2026

View of lower Manhattan from Sunset Cove

I was looking for horseshoe crabs in early June out at the end of the Broad Channel island. Unfortunately they were pretty much done making eggs and mating.  

But nearby I discovered the boardwalk and birdwatching platform along the shoreline at Sunset Cove.    

Sunset Cove boardwalk and platform

I learned that in 2019, following damage from Hurricane Sandy, NYC Parks restored this area of salt marsh at Sunset Cove Park to provide better public water access as well as future storm protection. Two years ago, a raised boardwalk was built through the wetland, which ends in the shaded platform, which is also used as an outdoor classroom.  

The first thing I noticed was a constructed platform for an osprey nest, with an osprey in it. I didn’t see any chicks though. 

The platform was equipped with viewing equipment for a closer look at the ospreys,  and the overall scene.

The parents were busy catching fish for themselves.

Nearby a group of terns were also fishing, which appeared to be Forster’s Terns, rather than the Common Terns I see more often around New York harbor.  

Double-crested Cormorants lounged on the posts along the shoreline drying their wings when they weren’t diving for fish. One looked at me and seemed like it was wearing a Halloween mask.

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  A Laughing Gull joined them but was not amused.

Much smaller Tree Swallows also perched on the posts and then flew out over the water. They  were chasing after insects rather than fish. 

   

An Oystercatcher was walking around on the sandy area of the wetlands and I wondered if there was a nest hidden in the grasses. 

Great Egrets flew over from to explore the wetland area. 

As well as a Snowy Egret showing off its bright yellow feet. 

A yellow-eyed grackle flew out over the bay and I was surprised to see it was a Boat-tailed Grackle. Its tail was longer and had a different sideways shape compared to the Common Grackles I see in the Manhattan parks. Later it returned to forage in the wetlands.

  

A Yellow-crowned Night Heron was looking for crustaceans along the edge of the water.

On the other side of the boardwalk, a Black-crowned Night Heron was doing the same. 

At some point it must have gotten too close to a Red-winged Blackbird’s nest, because they came out and harassed it. 

The blackbird nest could have been hidden down low among the reeds and grasses. 

The most unusual bird I saw in the wetlands area was a Clapper Rail. These birds usually stay hidden, though they make a big racket with their calls. I had never seen one in the New York area before. 

It is not too hard to get to Broad Channel by the A train and then the bus along Cross-bay Boulevard, so I will check back later in the summer to see what other birds come by.