a celebrity visited my street trees

dozens of people came to visit my sidewalk this week to see my bird

curtis in an oak tree. the white background is from a truck passing by.

my heart detects rare birds faster than my brain does. between the creature entering my binoculars and my thinker processing it, my chest tenses up and my pulse accelerates—like the feeling of dropping from a ziplining platform or hearing your name called to receive an award. and this week, i felt that sensation while standing on my roof at lunchtime.

on wednesday afternoon, i climbed the fire escape with my work laptop, camera, and little folding chair, like i do many spring afternoons, to stare at the sky in search of migrating raptors. but after my first scan, i noticed a rustle in the leaves of the treetop closest to me. i trained my binoculars on the source and saw a bright shock of blue. most shades of blue have little effect on my pulse, but this one induced an immediate kick to the sternum. it was cerulean.

then my brain kicked in. i only saw its back—maybe it was some other blue-hued bird? but that doubt only lasted for a second until the bird shouted at me, a loud, diagnostic, three-part song with the tone of a referee’s whistle: “chewa-chewa-chewa-chichichi-cheeeeee!” i was standing ten feet from one of new york city’s rarest expected migratory songbirds, the near-threatened cerulean warbler. i sent a message to the state’s bird discord server, and another to the local rare bird whatsapp group. five birders were on the scene within minutes and dozens had visited by the end of the day. i named the bird curtis—a report of a potential rarity flying over prospect park from a birder named lisa curtiss had sped me up to the roof that day.

curtis spent the whole day in this tree. this photo is taken from my bed, and indeed, i made sure to see curtis from bed to add him to my bed list.

the sight was a shock, but the encounter wasn’t so out-of-the-ordinary for me. birds have wings and move around on a schedule, and my mantra is that i can find any of america’s migratory songbirds from my roof if i spend enough time looking. i’m privileged that my situation attracts more birds and allows for more detection, though. new york city concentrates migratory birds, i live near a park, i have access to my roof, and my street trees are mostly native pin oaks, a favorite of warblers and other songbirds in spring. since i started drafting this post, i’ve heard a northern parula, ruby-crowned kinglet, and black-and-white warbler from bed. but i already wrote about seeing cool birds from my apartment—more on that here. with the rest of this post, i want to talk about my cerulean warbler and why a hundred people clogged the sidewalk to see him.

cerulean warblers are rare visitors to new york city. not mega rare—if you go out enough, you can expect to see maybe one or two per borough per year, stopping to refuel as they near the end of their migratory journey north. if you’re lucky, they sing—their song is loud and unique to their species, though another warbler, the black-throated blue warbler, sometimes sings a similar song you have to rule out. it’s a whole lot harder to find a cerulean warbler if it’s quiet, though. they spend most of their time in the top of the canopy, hunting for bugs in the tallest flowering trees, usually obscured by leaves. the craziest part of my bird wasn’t the fact that i found him, but the fact that i saw him from above.

cerulean warblers are canopy dwellers, so it’s very, very rare that you’d get to see one from above like this.

you’ve got better luck finding cerulean warblers on their breeding grounds: mature deciduous forest in the eastern united states with gaps in the canopy, either on mountains or in bottomlands, often on north and east-facing slopes. most of the species’ population inhabits the appalachians, especially around west virginia and southeastern ohio. many new york city birders go on a dedicated trip upstate to find cerulean warblers in a place called doodletown, a trail through an abandoned mining town along the hudson river with towering trees and permanent gaps created by the concrete foundations of the ruins. here, cerulean warblers are abundant, and if you learn how to detect them, they can be the most common bird on your visit. but doodletown is closed this year following a large storm that washed trails away.

this bird was once among the most common birds in the ohio and mississippi river valleys, but its population has plummeted by an average of 3% per year from 1966 to 2010, totaling a 72% reduction between 1970 and 2014 according to birds of the world. the international union for the conservation of nature lists it as near threatened—it’s still declining, though slower than it once was. its biggest threat is the degradation of the eastern woodland, clearing and fragmenting forest for development plus management practices that don’t allow forests to mature. the species is also sensitive to habitat clearing on its wintering grounds, broadleaf evergreen forests at middle elevations in the andes, most often on east slopes.

is that you, curtis??? i was lucky to have seen this cerulean warbler on its wintering grounds on britt and my trip to colombia back in march.

thankfully, cerulean warblers can thrive where humans are thoughtful about forest management. the bird’s breeding range has expanded in new york and ontario, and it seems that once forest regenerates into satisfactory habitat, the bird is willing to move back in. cerulean warblers thrive in shade-grown coffee plantations and might even prefer them to undisturbed forest—the inga genus of trees popular for providing shade to coffee plants seems to be a favorite foraging tree for the bird. in 2005, the colombian conservation organization proaves designated a reserve to protect cerulean warbler nonbreeding habitat, its first reserve specifically for a migratory bird.

with a story like that, it’s no surprise that birders came in droves to see curtis. and he made it easy, much easier than any other cerulean warbler that’s visited the city in recent memory. he spent the whole afternoon foraging quietly in just one or two trees, singing intermittently and occasionally descending to the lowest branches, giving better looks than most people can ever expect with this species. my neighbors were delighted—human visitors followed the courtesy rules i suggested with my report, shared their binoculars with nonbirders, and gave the block something to be proud about. for many, it was a coveted “life bird,” the first time they ever saw the species. from a city sidewalk, no less!

thanks for visiting me, curtis!!

and for me, it was one of the most special bird encounters i’ve ever had in the city. the bird was totally unwary of me, sometimes coming within feet of my rooftop perch, and i spent upwards of an hour and a half watching and photographing him. it was the kind of moment that reminds me why i write this newsletter in the first place.

postscript

it’s the peak of migration, so i’ve been out leading walks. my next walk is on friday, may 10 from 5:30 to 7pm at riverside park. you can also find me at the birder’s lounge event as part of the wings over wave hill festival on saturday, may 18 from 5:30 to 8:30. i’ll be leading bird trivia with my friend gabriel.

curtis wasn’t the only rare bird i saw this week. on tuesday i went up to the ibm office in yorktown heights to lead a few birdwatching tours on the forested campus. but at the end of the day while showing a bald eagle to my friend olivia, a swallow-tailed kite sailed over—one of the world’s most stunning raptors, a resident of the tropics that’s far out of range in ny. my sighting was the first ever for westchester county, but my photos were abysmal. thankfully other folks caught up with it the next day.

this is a swallow-tailed kite i saw in ecuador. thie one i saw in westchester looked like this, too.

and i know it’s been a while, but i have two other posts i’m working on, including an overdue take from my trip to colombia and a review of the latest book by acclaimed naturalist (and eyy i’m walkin' here reader!) kenn kaufman. looking forward to sharing those.

finally, i should say that, as a columbia university graduate, i’m furious and embarrassed that my alma mater would call on the nypd to brutalize students protesting a genocide—especially given how much drivel students hear about the school’s proud commitment to free speech and political activism. shameful stuff. i’ve been donating to bail funds, and columbia’s is here. some of you might be mad if i don’t also say “antisemitism is bad” and “hamas is bad” or something but i’m jewish and my opinions should be obvious from my other social media accounts.

that’s all for now—see you outside!!