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Friday, June 24, 2011

Friday's Foto

This Hooded Crow has taken up residence in Staten Island's Great Kills Park. How it arrived in North America is a mystery. It may be a year or two before the experts rule on whether it arrived on its own and can be considered the first record for this species in North America, either way, it's a cool bird and worth going to check out.

6 comments:

ks said...

Maybe an escapee from the Staten Island Zoo?

6:39 PM EDT
Rob Jett said...

Staten Island zoo doesn't have any Hooded Crows in their inventory, but good thought.

8:43 AM EDT
Helen said...

Mr. Jett, just want to say thank you for this blog.

This past winter and the constant snow cover had my family and me running around trying to feed the over-wintering birds some seeds and suet. Eventually we couldn't even get out of our back door and resorted to flinging the seeds out our windows. We had plenty of mourning doves and cardinal pairs at the seeds. Then we tied some suet cakes to the kitchen window and in a short amount of time were face to face with mockingbirds! One early AM one announced itself so loudly that we thought he/she somehow managed to get inside the house. Then the starlings came and they seemed to enjoy arguing with each other.

Can't identify too many birds (yet) but we are improving.

Have family in Alaska and the Hooded Crow in your photo at first glance appeared to be a "magpie" which are aplenty in Alaska. And the National Bird "sounds" like an overgrown seagull but their beauty in flight is nothing short of exquisite.

By the way, have you seen any lightning bugs yet? I live in NE Queens and have yet to see even one.

Thank you again

6:47 PM EDT
Rob Jett said...

Helen - thanks for your thoughts. Magpie-ish, for sure, but definitely a Hooded. I just saw my first fireflies of the season while enjoying "Spoon River Anthologies" at Green-Wood Cemetery.

8:30 AM EDT
Helen said...

That's wonderful!

Maybe there's too much light pollution in our area. Hope to see some later in the season when we go to Riverhead and Port Jefferson.

8:42 PM EDT
Ben C. said...

Rob, Hooded Crow just got added to the eBird.org database. Your sighting is listed as the first to make it onto eBird.org. Here's a link to the table for eBird-a-thon 2011 which tracks the new arrivals:

http://novahunter.blogspot.com/2010/12/nyc-area-ebird-thon-2011.html#NoteKB10Region

Ben Cacace
Manhattan, NYC

9:01 PM EDT

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