94th Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count

Saturday, December 23, 2017

The Bronx-Westchester CBC has now seen 231 different species of birds seen over its 90+  year history.

Many people requested a copy of the presentation during the countdown. For those who missed it; you'll likely to want to see it too!
Here it is as a PDF file (12 MB)  Countdown Presentation

Preliminary Results


American White Pelican
(Rare Bird Report)

     The 94th Bronx-Westchester Christmas Bird Count held Saturday December 23,2017 found only 109 species with an additional 6 count week birds due a very wet, but warm day. Less than  30,000 bird were counted; the lowest since 1952 when heavy rain and wind also greeted the counters. A new species was added to this 94 year count; an American White Pelican that was discovered at Playland Lake in Rye. This brings the cumulative total of the count to 231 species. A Black-and-white Warbler was found in Van Cortland Park for the counts 2nd record.

Other highlights:
Greater White-fronted Goose and Cackling Goose at Westchester Country Club. 
Another Cackling Goose was in Van Cortlandt Park.
Black-headed Gull at Five Island Park
Laughing Gull at Edgewater Point.
An Eastern Phoebe in the Bronx Zoo.
Chipping Sparrow at the Lenoir Feeder and another in West Bronx
Orange-crowned Warbler and 2 Pine Warblers in the Botanical Gardens. 
Count Week Iceland Gull in Pelham Bay Park (Rare Bird Report)
Canvasback was missed again. It was found Count Week.
Killdeer was also missed for the first time in 75 years!
Other misses included Clapper Rail, Virginia Rail, American Coot, Black-crowned Night Heron, Turkey Vulture, Northern Harrier, Red-breasted Nuthatch, (last missed in 1979) & Yellow-rumped Warbler
Next year's count will be Sunday, December 23, 2018.

  Species  (AOU 53rd) Hudson Valley Yonkers West Bronx East Bronx Scarsdale  Rye Total  
1 Snow Goose         2   2  
2 Greater White-fronted Goose           1 1  3rd Count record (1981 & 2011)
3 Brant     9 1250 778 111 2148  
4 Cackling Goose    

1

     1 2  2nd Count Record (2016), New HC
5 Canada Goose 110 263 1108 1899 2092 575 6047  
6 Mute Swan   1 2 4 3 55 65  
7 Wood Duck     34 1 6 1 42  
8 Northern Shoveler     67   12   79  
9 Gadwall     4 86 127 95 312  
10 American Widgeon         52 21 73  62 year low
11 Mallard 17 103 658 92 439 181 1490  
  mallard hybrid   4       4 8  
12 American Black Duck 5 3 14 210 140 153 525  
13 Northern Pintail           1 1  
14 Green-winged Teal (Am.)         1   1  
  Canvasback           CW CW  Missed two years in a row.
15 Ring-necked Duck         3   3  
16 Greater Scaup     329 547 435 41 1352  16 year low
17 Lesser Scaup     14 12   40 66  
    scaup, sp       4     4  
18 Surf Scoter       40     40  
19 White-winged Scoter       2   5 7  
20 Long-tailed Duck         1 38 39  
21 Bufflehead 3   59 176 222 234 694  
22 Common Goldeneye       52 18 11 82  
23 Hooded Merganser 5 14 23   44 62 148  
24 Common Merganser   260       7 267  
25 Red-breasted Merganser       56 29 55 140  
26 Ruddy Duck     52 2 1

CW

 55  
27 Wild Turkey 3 6 8

3

 8 26 54  
28 Pied-billed Grebe       1 1 2 4  
29 Horned Grebe           6 6  
30 Rock Pigeon 35 317 352 57 190 142 1093  
31 Mourning Dove 28 118 33 219 90 240 728  
32 American Coot     2       2  
  Killdeer          

CW

CW

 1st miss in 75 years
33 Ruddy Turnstone         10   10  
34 Dunlin       3

CW

   3  
35 Purple Sandpiper       1 5 9 15  
36 Greater Yellowlegs       1     1  
37 Black-headed Gull         1   1  
38 Laughing Gull         1   1  
39 Ring-billed Gull 168 459 578 763 209 147 2324  
40 Herring Gull 1 6 23 242 62 176 510  
  Iceland Gull      

CW

    

CW

  
41 Great Black-backed Gull 3 4 10 28 11 52 108  
42 Red-throated Loon     1 4 5 19 29  
43 Common Loon     3 16 10 6 35  
44 Double-crested Cormorant       6 7 29 42  
45 Great Cormorant      

1

 2 12 15  
   cormorant, sp      

12

     12  
46 AMERICAN WHITE PELICAN           1 1 New to the count
47 Great Blue Heron 1 2 9 4 6 24 46  
  Great Egret          

CW

CW

  
  Black-crowned Night-Heron        

CW

  

CW

  
  Turkey Vulture          

CW

CW

  
48 Bald Eagle  1   1     2 4  
49 Sharp-shinned Hawk 1 1 2     2 6  
50 Cooper's Hawk 1 2 4     4 11  
51 Red-shouldered Hawk         2   2  
52 Red-tailed Hawk 4 3 10 6 4 9 36  36 year low
53 Eastern Screech-Owl 1   3   2 1 7  
54 Great Horned Owl     2 1 3 3 9  
  Snowy Owl        

CW

  

CW

  
55 Barred Owl 1           1  
56 Belted Kingfisher 1 1 3   6 6 17  
57 Red-bellied Woodpecker 6 21 15 18 10 21 91  21 year low
58 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker     2   1 3 6  
59 Downy Woodpecker 2 10 7 21 22 17 79  58 year low
60 Hairy Woodpecker 2   3 3 2 6 16  41 year low
61 Northern Flicker   1   4 5 5 15  
62 Pileated Woodpecker           1 1  
63 American Kestrel     1 1     2  
64 Merlin      

1

 1

CW

 2  
65 Peregrine Falcon 1 1 1 1 1

CW

 5  
66 Monk Parakeet       2 1   3  
67 Eastern Phobe     1       1  first in 15 years
68 Blue Jay 28 63 165 113 48 91 508  
69 American Crow 19 46 11   40 43 159  59 year low
70 Fish Crow 1 3     8 3 15  17 year low
  crow, sp         51  

51

  
71 Common Raven   1 2 3   4 10  
  Horned Lark          

CW

CW

  
72 Black-capped Chickadee 21 57 31 9 27 84 229  
73 Tufted Titmouse 16 48 7 19 24 16 130  41 year low
74 White-breasted Nuthatch 5 13 18 16 16 18 86  33 year low
75 Brown Creeper     6 2 2 1 11  
76 Winter Wren 3 3 2   4 3 15  
77 Marsh Wren         1 1 2  
78 Carolina Wren 8 7 5 20 14 30 84  
79 Golden-crowned Kinglet 3 5 11 1 12 7 39  
80 Ruby-crowned Kinglet     1     1 2  
81 Hermit Thrush     2   2

CW

 4  
82 American Robin 2 17 164 18 64 124 389  
83 Gray Catbird   1 1 1   2 5  
84 Brown Thrasher         1   1  
85 Northern Mockingbird 5 11 14 16 5 14 65  45 year low
86 European Starling 220 289 1159 307 509 343 2827  
87 Cedar Waxwing           11 11  
88 House Sparrow 35 175 541 90 228 156 1225  
89 American Pipit           1 1  
90 House Finch 5 55 5 22 90 62 239  
91 American Goldfinch 1 7 19 21 21 20 89  51 year low
  Lapland Longspur          

CW

CW

  
92 Eastern Towhee       2 1 3 6  
93 American Tree Sparrow 2     2   34 38  
94 Chipping Sparrow   1 1       2  
95 Field Sparrow 12       1 7 20  
96 Savannah Sparrow         1   1  
97 Fox Sparrow   2 5 14 3 14 38  
98 Song Sparrow 29 23 26 73 64 214 429  
99 Swamp Sparrow   1 3   3 13 20  
100 White-throated Sparrow 57 175 180 474 160 276 1322  
101 Dark-eyed (Slate col.) Junco 15 247 240 54 95 126 777  
102 Red-winged Blackbird     85 26 1 56 168  
103 Brown-headed Cowbird     2     1 3  
104 Rusty Blackbird     3 10     13  
105 Common Grackle     2 605 40 250 897  
106 BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER     1       1  2nd Count Record (2015)
107 Orange-crowned Warbler     1       1  10th Count Record
108 Pine Warbler     2       2  6th Count Record
109 Northern Cardinal 25 41 31 34 48 54 233  39 year low
                   
    Hudson Valley Yonkers West Bronx East Bronx Scarsdale  Rye TOTAL  
109 Number of Saves 1 0 5 3 9 7    
  Number of Species 44 45 71 65 78 82    
  Totals 912 2891 6194 7805 6667 4746 29215   65 year low

 

  Hudson Valley Yonkers West Bronx East Bronx Scarsdale  Rye Total  
Number of Saves 1 0 5 3 9 7    
Number of Species 44 45 71 65 78 82 109  
Totals 912 2891 6194 7805 6667 4746 29215  65 year low
               
Participants in Field 5 11 22 21 13 11 83  
Parties min 2 4 7 8 8 6 35  
Parties max 2 5 7 8 10 11 38  
Participants at Feeders 1 2 1 0 0 0 4  
Hours at Feeders 1 4 0 0 2 0 7  
Owling Hours 1.75 1 0 0 2.5 1.5 6.75  
Owling Miles 0.25 4 0 0 15 8 27.25  
Foot Hours 14.5 10 41 49.5 50 47 212  
Foot Miles 4 14 28 36 20 24.5 126.5  
Car Hours 1 6 1 4.5 7 3 22.5  
Car Miles 3 32 4 18 75 27 159  

CW = Seen count week but not on count day ( 3 days prior and 3 days after)

Michael Bochnik
Compiler

Return to the counts home page