Bird Watchers Flock To Manhattan To Spot Rare Western Tanager

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY – Bird watchers and nature lovers alike are enjoying the presence of an unusual visitor in Manhattan: a Western Tanager.

The golden bird, first spotted in the area on Sunday, hasn't been seen in Manhattan in four years, according to the Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter account.

A Twitter thread by Warren Leight, a showrunner for NBC, captured a group of photographers gathered outside a brownstone on West 22nd Street in West Chelsea on Sunday. After speaking with a photographer, Leight learned everyone below had gathered to look at a Western Tanager, a bird rarely seen in New York.

"I felt great relief that all these folks had gathered – not to witness another 2020 loss – but rather to see a rare bird," Leight wrote. "How lucky I was that a street full of New Yorkers reminded me that if you keep looking up, you might see something rare and wonderful."

Jeff Kimball, the previous president of New York City Audubon, said the Western Tanager visits the city two to four times per decade.

"It's not the most common bird out west either, and it's always a delight to see them out there as well," Kimball said.

Kimball said the Western Tanagers are native to the Rocky Mountains and spend their winters in Mexico. What likely happened with the bird who ended up in Chelsea is it became turned around – about 90° off – and instead of traveling due south it ended up flying due west.

"And then it hits the ocean and goes, 'Uh oh, there's not supposed to be an ocean here," Kimball said. "It doesn't know what to do, so it hunkers down and it may or may not survive the winter."

Whether it survives the winter will be determined by how cold temperatures get in the city and whether it can find food – mostly berries and bugs.

Kimball said it's unlikely the bird will attempt to get to Mexico this year, because it appears to have trouble navigating. If it survives the winter, he said it's possible the bird could make a U-turn and head back to the Rockies and try again next winter.

The bird taking up residence in Chelsea is likely not the same that was recently spotted in Brooklyn, as that bird had some red coloring in addition to the traditional yellow of the Western Tanager.

"In the winter, both the females and the males look the same, so we're not actually sure if it's a female or a first-year male," Kimball said. "I would guess it's a first-year male because it's having this navigation problem."

Since Sunday, the Manhattan Bird Alert account has been keeping tabs on the Western Tanager, most recently confirming Friday morning that the bird was still on West 22nd Street, and on Thursday it had been spotted eating "street-tree berries."

While the exciting about the Western Tanager continues among passersby and bird watchers, Kimball said it's unlikely the frenzy will negatively impact the bird.

"I think there could be 200 people watching and it wouldn't bother the bird," he said. "Because it's 30, 40 feet up in the tree and people are across the street watching it through their binoculars."