A field observation: There was been a vagrant Painted Bunting in Prospect Park late November, 2015 on.
- A Painted Bunting (Passerina ciris) is a species of bird in the Cardinal family, Cardinalidae, that is native to North America.
- One of the many news articles is from the New York Times, “Painted Bunting, a Rare Visitor to Brooklyn, Gives Birders Cause to Stare” by Andy Newman 12/2/2015.
- Audubon.org writes, “Why a Painted Bunting Landed in Brooklyn?”
- And Birdlife International in Data Zone, Painted Bunting Passerina ciris says, “This species has declined over the long term and apparently continues to do so at a moderately rapid rate. It is therefore considered to be Near Threatened.”
- A good article “Everybody’s heard about the bird” 12/8/2015 by Ed Gaillard
You’d be hard pressed to miss it – a painted bunting looks like something from a coloring book. I first saw the Painted Bunting (a life bird) on Friday, December 4, 2015 at 9:30 am. The moment I entered the park I saw a group of people by a tree. I rushed over and there was the Painted Bunting sitting on a branch of a pine tree in full view. I didn’t even have my camera or binoculars out yet. I followed the bird around for a while, along with its entourage of birders. Next day I returned to try and get a semi-decent photograph. There were at least 50 birders at a time surrounding the little bird, who didn’t care a fig about the people. It was very hard to photograph because of all the birders. I couldn’t get a good view and when I did someone invariably jostled me. I tried for two days and managed to get a few semi-usable shots on the second day.
Environmental note: habitat restoration and management is crucial to our local birds not just to vagrants. There a lots of feral cats wandering the parks in NYC. Vagrant birds are not a good thing if global warming is the cause.