Urban Bird Families

Charles J. Sharp, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Spring migration has come and gone. Non-migratory birds and birds that have migrated as far north as New York City have been at work building nests and tending to their young. Bird nests appear in a variety of locations and forms, from ground nests (shore birds); to bowl-shaped nests in shrubbery or trees (Robins); nests within the cavity of trees (Woodpeckers) or eaves of roofs or other spaces (Swallows); platform nests (Osprey); and nests suspended from tree branches (Orioles). Though much of New York City is covered by concrete, steel, and asphalt, nature's life cycle continues where greenery is present.

I have noticed much activity over the past few weeks (Robins tending nestlings near Maintenance Meadow in Central Park and Wood Ducks shepherding their fuzzy-feathered duckling on the Central Park Reservoir along a route rich in food, nudging them in the right direction if they wander off too far). And, avid local birdwatchers have reported numerous sightings  (Courtesy Manhattan Bird Alert):

• Red-Tailed Hawk nestlings in at Tompkins Square (6/22, 18, and 2);
  
• Cedar Waxwings nesting in a Willow Oak on the west side of the dock at Central Park's Turtle Pond (6/y) and carrying nesting material to the tree a couple of weeks earlier (5/23);
  
• Nesting Gray Catbird in Bryant Park;
• Eastern Kingbird nesting in an oak above the dock at Central Park's Turtle Pond (5/30);
• Three young Peregrine Falcons sitting atop their nest ledge at a building on 62nd Street and Central Park West (5/26);
• Three baby Red-Tailed Hawks above Grants Tomb (5/23); it was later reported that this hawk family encountered serious hardship, with the father killed in a window crash, the mother rescued and in rehab after a car crash and was released on 6/23. Each of the three fledglings was subsequently rescued (6/12 and 6/14).
  

Nesting and raising young follow a complex process of staking out and defending territory and mating. Each bird species has specific calls for defending its territory and specific calls for mating, with the more colorful males of a species sometimes flashing their splendid feathers. And nestlings have their own specific calls to their parents, translated loosely as "feed me!"  In most cases, male and females tend to the young, although males that are brightly colored (such as Tanagers and Warblers) usually focus on defending the territory and nest. Nests material consists of sticks, bark, and plant fiber, with softer materials--grass, mammal hair, green leaves--for the interior.

How rich and epic is birds' cycle of life hidden away in trees and among buildings even within our largely paved-over city!

---