Yellow-bellied sapsucker (Sphyrapicus varius). Our first bird of the morning. I lifted my field glasses to get a better look, but never caught a glimpse of its golden underside. Bob pointed out rows of holes in the bark of a Siberian elm, one of the woodpecker’s favorite trees in Central Park. Most of these birds are passing through, making a stop to feed before continuing on their journey south. 

It was a Saturday morning in mid-October, overcast but mild.  About 30 people had gathered outside a restaurant in the middle of the park to meet up with Bob for a 3-hour walk. A native New Yorker, Bob earned a PhD studying the flora of NYC and has been conducting bird walks in Central Park for over 25 years. Dave and I arrived at 9:30, not a moment too soon, to go on the second walk of the morning. We both borrowed binoculars (often referred to as “bins” by birders) from Bob and were on our way, headed into the Ramble, one of the wilder areas of the Park.

After our first sighting, Dave and I fell into a rhythm. I made a list of all of the birds called out and he looked them up on the Cornell bird identification website.  We had mixed success in actually seeing the birds, often concealed in the leaves of trees or moving too quickly for our inexperienced binocular handling. We took few photos, leaving that to the pros with their high-powered cameras and long lenses.

The morning passed quickly with a succession of kinglets, warblers, and sparrows. Lots of the birders dropped off. Dave and I had skipped breakfast in our rush to catch an uptown train to the park so it was tempting, but we kept walking, stopping frequently to peer through our bins into the trees, hoping to spot a scarlet tanager or a brown creeper.

Near the end of our walk, back in the heavily-wooded Ramble, the sun came out and one of our fellow birders pointed out a red-tailed hawk (Buteo jamaicensis). The feathered predator was sitting serenely on the branch of a hackberry tree above a boulder, the size of an upended mini-van, balanced on a sheet of rock.

Red-tails, native to the area, have adapted well to the ceaseless growth and development of Manhattan. They nest and raise their young on the ledges of multi-storied buildings near Central Park, soar high over the city, and make a good living off an endless supply of rats and pigeons. The story of one red-tail called Pale Male was documented in books, movies, and articles. In the 1990s, he and his mate built a nest on a Fifth Avenue building where they raised their young in view of a crowd of birdwatchers and casual bystanders.

Red-tails in NYC have grown used to humans and this adult male paid no attention to the photographers under the hackberry angling for the best shot or to those of us who stayed on the path training our bins on him to get a better look at his pale breast and streaky belly band.

We have red-tails in New Mexico and I often see them on power poles as we drive down the highway, but it’s always a fleeting view from a distance. Although this red-tail sitting on a branch was not a rarity in the park, it was my favorite sighting of the day. Long ago I had read about the Central Park red-tails and I wondered if this hawk might be one of Pale Male’s progeny.

I stood and watched, hoping to see him take flight so I could get a look at his red fan-shaped tail and the elaborate pattern on the underside of his wings, but he didn’t budge. I took one last long look before I handed my bins back to Bob.

Dave and I walked out of the park, caught a southbound subway, and went in search of lunch.

Further Information:
Bob’s Bird Walks – schedules and bird lists and much more
Deborah Allen’s list of birds for October 12, 2019
Central Park Red-Tailed Hawks: two articles written by Deborah Allen and Robert DeCandido (aka Bob): Nesting! and Fledging!