Adult male Cerulean Warbler, Upper West Side, NYC - May 2008

Images and text copyright © Phil Jeffrey 2008

Doug Futuyma found a Cerulean Warbler on 89th Street between Columbus and Amsterdam Aves on the morning of May 4th 2008. Word spread pretty quickly, and I finally got myself motivated to go see it around 1pm. I used to think the Yellow-throated Warbler I found on a similar residential street in 2005 was a pretty good find, but a singing male Cerulean Warbler trumps that. Cerulean Warbler has a relatively small and rapidly declining population and is under consideration for listing under the Endangered Species Act (as Threatened). As such Ceruleans are difficult to find in Central Park, much less residential streets. On May 4th one was seen at Garret Mtn to the west of us in NJ. Ceruleans had also been reported from breeding grounds at Doodletown (Bear Mtn, NY) and High Point State Park (NJ) around that time.

I managed to get a few pictures of this bird in rather high contrast light, but these ones show it best. These same ones are my bird photo gallery right now.

Phil Jeffrey, May 2008