I have been watching a web cam trained on a Bald Eagle nest in New Jersey every day for almost two months. I let it run all day on my computer desktop at work; the infrequent bursts of activity catch my eye, but it is mostly patient waiting. The nest is in a tree on […]
Author: Julie Feinstein
I am a Collection Manager at the American Museum of Natural History, an author, and a photographer. I live in New York City. I recently published my first popular science book, Field Guide to Urban Wildlife, an illustrated collection of natural history essays about common animals. I update my blog, Urban Wildlife Guide, every Sunday.
Ring-billed Gull Ready for Spring
This ring-billed gull, Larus delawarensis, is in breeding plumage; the bird’s head and breast are snowy white. I took the picture on the East River in Brooklyn last week. Can spring be far behind? This is an adult ring-bill in non-breeding plumage, taken a few months ago in the same place. Its head and neck […]
Red-necked Grebe
Here is a bird New Yorkers don’t see every day — a red-necked grebe. It is uncommon enough around New York City to be popping up on rare bird sighting lists. I saw this one in the East River today, between Piers 4 and 5, in Brooklyn Bridge Park. It was diving, disappearing under water […]
Winter Continues
It is still cold in New York City! This mourning dove (Zenaida macroura) was sitting on my porch today with its feathers puffed up, hanging out and keeping warm.
Red-breasted Merganser Dives
February is a good month to look for red-breasted merganser ducks in New York City’s East River. Today I saw the one in these two photos. I wrote about another on a February Sunday in 2011. The red-breasted merganser is a diving duck; it mainly eats fish, which it dives under water to catch. Below […]
Polar Vortex Winter Birds
It was a cold week in New York. As I sat writing at my desk by the window I saw the neighborhood birds in another light. One of the ways birds keep warm is by fluffing up their insulating feathers; they looked like puffballs all week. They have other ways to keep warm. Their feet […]
Cooper’s Hawk
The cooper’s hawk is about the size of a crow. Immatures are mottled brown on top with brown-streaked creamy breasts and yellow feet. Adults are slate-gray above with reddish barred light breasts and red eyes. They are found year-round in all but the coldest parts of the lower 48 United States. Birdwatchers call them coopies. […]
Peregrine Falcon
I saw this falcon at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge in Oceanville, New Jersey, on Christmas day, 2013. I would not have noticed it, but an adult peregrine circled around me. I looked at the ground where the adult had swooped lowest and I saw the young peregrine on the ground. I took […]