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| Hooded Crow Photo: Shari Zirlin |
HOODED CROW is a common Eurasian corvid that occasionally makes its way as far west as Greenland. There are 90 confirmed sightings in Iceland. But it has never been seen on the East Coast of North America until now. (There are some records from mid-continent, but at least one was traced back as a captive bird.)
No one really thinks this is an escapee; that leaves the two possibilities that it made it here on its own, jumping from Western Europe, to Iceland (perhaps) to Greenland to somewhere in North America where no one noticed it to a parking lot on the southern tip of Great Kills Park called Crooke's Point, which would make it legit; or was it "ship assisted?" In other words, did it somehow hitch a ride on a freighter and disembark somewhere around the Verrazano Bridge? In which case, the various records committees would probably disallow it as a countable bird. However, by the time they finish dithering about over the question it could be one or two years before they come to a decision and really, how will they ever know?
Here's my position: if a bird wasn't deliberately brought out of range, it's countable. Escapees are obviously no good--the Black Swan that occasionally visits Jamaica Bay obviously didn't fly here from Australia and it is very unlikely it flew onto a freighter so it is an escapee from a zoo. But if a bird flew on to a ship and decided to stay (or couldn't get back because of weather), then, who cares? We're part of the natural world and what we do affects it and if that includes spreading species around then so be it.
Is it a life bird? In my guide book Birds of the Mediterranean by Paul Sterry, Hooded Crow (Corvus corone cornix) is considered a race of the nominate species Carrion Crow (Corvus corone corone), of which we saw many when we were in France in 2007. In which case it is just a cool bird to add to my US, NY, and Richmond County lists. However, the book mentions that some consider them as separate species and on my world checklist from the International Ornithologist Union, the two species are separate. In which case, lifer.
It was almost too easy finding the bird today. Just as we walk into the parking lot (we had to walk there because it is restricted to people with permits) I spotted the bird on the gravel. We got good looks, then it flew away, harassed by 3 mockingbirds. I said to Shari, "We just missed just missing it."
There were about 10 other birders there and we hung around for a while and suddenly it reappeared at the end of the lot where we got our "field guide" looks at it and Shari was able to get one decent photo (above).
Before we left we check out the peat flat at the northern end of the park. It was high tide so there weren't many shorebirds or wader there, though there were a lot of Bank Swallows. I had mentioned to another birder at the Crooke's Point lot that the peat flat always seem to have one weird duck in the summer months (we've seen out of season scoters, Bufflehead, and Common Eider there) and sure enough, today I spotted this very odd Red-breasted Merganser which I assume is leucistic, meaning reduced pigmentation, and differs from albinism in its cause.
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| Leucistic Red-breasted Merganser Photo: Shari Zirlin |
23 species at Great Kills. 1 lifer.
Mallard 2
Greater/Lesser Scaup 2
Red-breasted Merganser 1 Leucistic
Double-crested Cormorant 6
Great Egret 1
American Oystercatcher 2
Laughing Gull 1
Ring-billed Gull 1
Herring Gull 1
Great Black-backed Gull 1
Rock Pigeon 15
Mourning Dove 1
HOODED CROW 1 Crooke's Point Parking Lot
Northern Rough-winged Swallow 5
Bank Swallow 25 Cliffs of peat flats
American Robin 1
Gray Catbird 5
Northern Mockingbird 6
Brown Thrasher 1
European Starling 5
Yellow Warbler 2
Eastern Towhee 2
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 5
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