User:Moose1917/Birding in New York City

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Urban Bird Species Interactions

Rufous Hummingbird (juvenile male) on Seedskadee National Wildlife Refuge

In the manmade ecosystem of New York City, various bird species engage in predator and prey interactions, impacting the population dynamics. This influences populations of rodents and other prey, while potentially influencing other bird species in the process. These relationships extend to the pest control efforts of birds like the Red-tailed Hawk preying on rodents. An additional interplay are poisoned rodents that have made predatory birds sick in the northeastern United states. As they navigate the urban landscape, competition also arises among bird species, whether for the limited supply of food, limited and thus sought-after habitat spaces, or other available resources, reflecting the challenges and adaptability of city life. Anthropogenic noise pollution in New York City acts as another layer between bird interactions regarding intra-species interactions, and possible hybrid interspecies interactions. New York City is a key factor of birds adjusting their songs in response to loud background noises which results in low frequency in their songs. Additionally, some birds engage in mutualism, contributing to plant pollination, an interaction between the birds of the New York City recently enforced green spaces as habitats, breeding grounds, and hat welcome other native pollinators as well. Furthermore, niche partitioning becomes evident as different bird species migrate through the urban environment, each finding their distinct role and ecological niche in this bustling environment.

Migrations

Flock of birds flying in front of an urban building

Migration patterns of birds in urban settings like New York City introduces new challenges to migrating birds that have never encountered such an environment before. The city’s skyline, filled with skyscrapers and residential homes, poses challenges for migrating birds, including impact with buildings and urban light sources impacting migration in urban settings. Some species of birds, specifically those that migrate, have a high chance of injury and death because birds do not recognize the glass window and as a result, the birds fatally crash. Often, birds can die from the sudden impact . These interruptions to the natural landscape, known as “Interrupted Landscapes,” can be particularly hazardous as birds utilize city parks as stopover habitats. The urban environment also indirectly affects humans by influencing pollination and controlling prey populations, with migrating birds playing a crucial role in both processes. As these birds navigate seasonal journeys, they interact with various species and face unique challenges, especially in areas with high rising reflective surfaces that can be deadly. The interrupted landscapes create conflicts between birds and infrastructure, showing the need for conservation efforts like from the New York City Audubon Society, and the consideration of avian ecology in urban planning. While New York City occupies a particular landscape, birds migrating along the East Coast come to face the environment crafted in recent centuries. Understanding how different bird species interact during their migrations and how human structures impact their routes can provide insights for developing more inclusive urban ecosystems for bird species that are not native to the region, allowing more birds to be seen by citizens. With a rapid increase of habitat destruction, birds have to live learning how to navigate in an urban environment with one another which means that certain behaviors that birds would perform in nature would change in order to adapt in a busy urban area. One example would be stress hormones released from birds.

Bird Species in New York City

Birds are constantly migrating into and out of New York as seasons change. It is assumed that urban environments such as New York have rare birds flying into the city and living there as well as many species all together. This is actually false. Studies have shown that urban areas, specifically New York City, have low species diversity in birds. This is because certain birds are more adapted to living in an urban area than other different species of birds which means that the environment favors the small portion of the birds. This means that when the weather gets cold or warm in the changing seasons, this doesn't have a huge effect on certain species of birds that live in an urban environment. This doesn’t mean that urban areas don’t have a diversity in birds. One example is the size of a park. Bigger parks like Prospect park or Central park will have more diversity in birds than smaller parks due to the difference in habitat. When there is a city, previous bird species can die out due to not being able to adapt while other species thrive and do well in the environment. One example is bird interactions with humans. Birds that live in New York City are well adapted to humans and are sometimes seen being held by a human being. Not many birds can adapt to this kind of behavioral preference. Birds are adapted to each other that competition for food is low because theres a high abundance of people that live in cities that feed the birds.

Citizen Science/Birding Locations

There are sources that are available for bird trackers and watchers. A website, eBird, is used by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The website keeps track of bird lists, sounds, and photos. The website keeps track of birds and their habitat as well as which region of the world they are spotted. The website is good for learning about the different species of birds and their behavior. The data in the website helps scientists keep track of the population of the birds as well as their migration pattern due to climate change. Merlin Bird ID is also used by Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Merlin Bird ID is another citizen science app that is used to detect the bird based on the song that the bird gives off. Merlin Bird ID can also be used to identify birds from photos that are taken of birds. The app is available in the US, Canada, Europe, Central and South America, and India. The app also shows a list of a variety of birds and their own kind of calling.

Article Draft

Lead

New York is a home to many living organisms that each have their own unique characteristics as well as how these organisms interact. In the state of New York there is large diversity of birds from five different boroughs. In each borough the diversity of birds can fluctuate depending on the environmental conditions as well as the availability of resources for the birds. Different areas of New York may also impact the interactions between birds for mating. For example, areas that are typically busy such as New York City the interactions of birds will be much more different than in areas that are less busy. Different bird species adapt to their environment differently that is why different areas have different species for example in places where there is a beach, Brighton Beach, seagulls would be found and these species of birds have their own way of communicating as well as finding their resources.

Article body

Section - Brooklyn

The size of parks may determine how birds interact. Parks like Asser Levy Park, and Prospect Park, both differ in size, food availability, the amount of background noise in the environment, and shelter/ territory. The quality of birds interactions is determined by the busy streets that are by the park. Birds have their own unique voice which is how they find mates, it becomes challenging when this is done under immense noise from busy streets. A birds chirping can be recorded by an app by the name of Merlin Bird ID, which shows the birds pitch and the length of their song. Because of the pitch of the song the bird can be identified.

Species of birds in an Urban environment New York city has a variety of different species of birds which include pigeons, house sparrow, European starling, cardinal. Birds fly in to the city and travel to different areas of New York and they live and adapt to an urban environment. One example that birds do in New York is enter an MTA subway train. Urban birds learn from human activity and mimic it, it's not that they have a particular stop to get off of, they learn that it is somewhat safe entering a cart because they learned it by watching humans doing it. Migration takes place in Spring and Fall.

The coasts to the south and southwest of Brooklyn have several beaches and salt marshes where a variety of shorebirds and marsh birds are common. Seaside sparrows and Nelson's sparrows are commonly seen around Coney Island and Plumb Beach, for example. Several of these areas, such as Floyd Bennett Field, Plumb Beach, and Shirley Chisholm State Park, are part of the Jamaica Bay unit of the Gateway National Recreation Area. The New York Birding Trail includes nine locations in Brooklyn: Calvert Vaux Park, Plumb Beach, Floyd Bennett Field, Marine Park Salt Marsh, Shirley Chisholm State Park, Prospect Park, Fort Greene Park, Highland Park Ridgewood Reservoir, and Marsha P. Johnson State Park. Parts of the former industrial waterfront areas of Brooklyn have been converted into public space, included some which attract a range of waterfowl and other aquatic birds. Bush Terminal Pier Park, which opened in 2014, is a common birding spot for the ducks, gulls, raptors, and other species it attracts.

Floyd Bennett Field was added to the Gateway National Recreation Area in 1972. At the time, it was not accessible to the general public, and became known for grassland birds like eastern meadowlarks, grasshopper sparrows, and upland sandpipers in the summer, and raptors like northern harriers and short-eared owls in the winter. It has since become a mixed use recreation area for the public and lost much of its grassland area. These changes, plus a broader trends in bird populations led these grassland birds and owls to become uncommon. At the same time, a few species were seen breeding there in the 2000-2004 Breeding Bird Atlas which had not been seen in the 1980-1984 edition: willets, Carolina wrens, brown-headed cowbirds, and savannah sparrows. It is a common nesting site for American kestrels, and regarded as among the best places in the area to see them. It is also the site of a variety of public projects, such as relief operations during hurricane Sandy and construction of a pipeline, which have led to some additional development of former wildlife habitats. At the end of 2014, a Cassin's kingbird attracted birders from outside New York to the site.

Monk parakeets, which are not native to the United States, have set up multiple colonies in Brooklyn, but their origin is disputed. A common story involves the parakeets, considered a nuisance in Argentina, shipped up to New York for the pet trade in the 1950s. After arriving, they reportedly escaped. Alternatively, the colonies may have started by various escaped pets. There are populations in Gravesend, Marine Park, and in Midwood by the Brooklyn College athletic field, but the largest and best known colony is in the landmarked Gothic arch at the entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery, where they have been permitted to reside indefinitely. The cemetery, with diverse plantings in its landscaped space, is also a popular birding destination, especially around its four small bodies of water.

Common Starling and house sparrow is known to be an invasive species and can be found in all five boroughs of New York, just like the Monk parakeets, The Common Starling are not native to the United States and were intentionally released. The Common Starling is originally from Europe as well as North Africa. The Common Starling can be found in Brooklyn College, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Sunset park, and in the streets of New York.

Section- Manhattan

According to the article, Central Park which is located in the heart of Manhattan, is home to over 200 species of birds. The New York Times have labeled Central Park as "The Birding Mecca" with comparisons to the Everglades and Yosemite National Park. Many species of birds including the house sparrows, red-tailed hawks , European starlings, American kestrels and feral pigeons make their nests on the ledges of the tall skyscrapers that surround the park. Even though there are about 272 species observed in Manhattan only a small amount of the species, which is around sixteen including the American Robin, are observed breeding throughout the park. The New York City Parks Department's Urban Park Rangers began running ran educational programs in the park, including bird walks and species reintroductions during the the early 1990s. With the programs dwindling in the early 2000s,many Park Rangers including Robert "Birding Bob" DeCandido, began their own independent walks to help keep education of these bird species alive. There are four locations located in Manhattan that are apart of the New York State Birding Trial which includes, Governors Island, Central Park, Inwood Hill Park, and Fort Tyron Park.

Section- Bronx

The four locations that are a part of the New York State Birding Trial are Crotona Park, Roberto Clemente State Park, Van Cortlandt Lake, and Pelham Bay South. In the 20th Century, the sighting of the Lawrence Warbler drew a great amount of attention to the Bronx when the area was still considered rural. Currently the Bronx Zoo and the New York Botanical Garden occupy those spaces.

Section - Issues

Plume Trade

During the 19th Century, there was an extremely large number of birds that were being hunted and traded for the sake of fashion. Most of these fashions were accessories that were made using bird feathers and other parts of the bird. These luxury goods included hats that were made using bird feathers. Frank Chapman, who worked for the American Museum of Natural History at the time, conducted a "feathered hat census" where he would walk the streets of New York City and count how many hats with bird feathers that he saw. He concluded that about 75 percent of women that he observed wore hats made with birth feathers with about 40 species that have been identified by the feathers found on the hats. One of the species that suffer significant loss was the Herons, according to the autions of the London Commerical Sale Rooms in the year 1902 over 1,600 of Heron plumes were sold. In order to sell this much packages close to 200,000 Herons were killed for their plumes. In May 1910, there was a law passed called the New York State Plumage law that prohibited the use of the sale of plumes found from birds that were native to the state of New York.

Different species of birds have experienced habitat loss due to the poor quality of the environment such as water and air in an urban environment. Birds like short-eared owl as well as upland sandpipers can thrive in an urban environment, however, it has changed due to human activity. Due to habitat loss such as trees getting cut down, birds have a difficult time finding their territory as well as nesting so as a result birds nest on the ground and therefore, birds are more vulnerable to nearby predators.

Invasive Species In NYC

During the 1850s, the city of New York were infested with a species of moth called the linden moths. The larvae of the linden moths feed on apple, oak, birch and elm, which was mostly found throughout the city. Because of this the city itself imported hundreds of European starlings and House Sparrows to eat the larvae and fight the infestation. However, due to misinformation or lack of information on the birds diet not many people in the city knew that the starlings and sparrows feed on mostly seeds. It was little too late to fix the problem as the species had already integrated within the native ecosystem and forced all the native species out due a population growth rate and aggressive behavior. The current population of these bird species have reached hundreds of millions and they can be found around the world.

Light and Window Collision

New York City, also known as the concrete jungle, is known for it's towering skyscrapers that seems to touch the sky with hundreds of them sprinkled throughout the city. While it may be aesthetically pleasing to tourists visiting the city these tall buildings with glass windows on each side have been a major issue correlating with the deaths of millions birds from different species across the city. In the article, Interrupted Landscapes: The Future of Bird Migration the author, Roger F. Pasquier, explained to his readers that New York City is know as a resting spot for many species that are involved in the spring migration flying southwest in hopes of finding woodlands and forests. During certain times in the months of springs hundreds and thousands of birds from different species all fly through NYC and they can be attracted to the bright lights found on these buildings during their flights, however birds have a high difficulty of seeing glass and with majority of the buildings covered in glass many of these birds die due to colliding into the buildings. The organization of the New York City Audubon have recorded that as of the year 2019 over 200,000 birds have died due to collisions with buildings in New York City. With this large loss of bird life in the year 2019 the city have passed a law that all new buildings should bird friendly material, glasses were to be replaced with fritted glass allowing birds to see the glass easier. In 2021 the city also passed bills that required buildings to turn off their lights at night during the spring and winter migration periods to ensure the safety of the birds while they migrate through the city. These changes were made in order to reduce the number bird deaths in the city.

References

The Primary literature references we have obtained are presented below

1. Pasquier, R. F. (2017). Interrupted Landscapes: The Future of Bird Migration. SiteLINES: A Journal of Place, 13(1), 13–16. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26214077
   1. Journal Article on the prospects of bird migration against climate change and atypical habitats, like New York City.
2. Møller, A. P., Díaz, M., Flensted-Jensen, E., Grim, T., Ibáñez-Álamo, J. D., Jokimäki, J., Mänd, R., Markó, G., & Tryjanowski, P. (2015). Urbanized birds have superior establishment success in novel environments. Oecologia, 178(3), 943–950. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43672602
   1. Journal article detailing how breeding population near cities, a metric for distinguishing urbanized birds, was significantly correlated with successful establishment.
3. Patankar S, Jambhekar R, Suryawanshi KR, Nagendra H. Which Traits Influence Bird Survival in the City? A Review. Land. 2021; 10(2):92. https://doi.org/10.3390/land10020092
4. Birds in Urban Ecosystems: Population Dynamics, Community Structure, Biodiversity, and Conservation https://estebanfj.bio.purdue.edu/papers/UrbanEco4.pdf