Hey Lady, I'm Not a Mallard!

Updated Dec. 11:

I have been told by a very good birder that this northern pintail is actually a young male. I have edited this post to reflect this.

I've seen just a few northern pintails, the most recent before Thanksgiving being a female at Turtle Pond in September. (See A Pintail Visitor, my blog posting on Sept. 22.) I admit that while I had seen the pintail female before, I am still not good at picking her out from the female mallards unless I know she has been spotted somewhere. In fact, I probably wouldn't have noticed the pintail I saw Thanksgiving Day at the Pool in Central Park if I hadn't been looking for what I thought at the time was a female pintail. But a young birder tweeted that a female pintail was hanging out at 100th Street, so I went in search. When I first saw the duck, I was convinced it was a female. Now I'm told that this is a young male pintail. Now I've seen the shiny black bill, long neck and blue-gray legs and feet a few times, I hope I will be able to identify a northern pintail the next time I see one. Will I know whether it's a young male or a female? Probably not.

Young male northern pintail at the 100th Street Pool, Central Park, Nov. 24, 2016

This duck is quite feisty! When I fed the mallards to draw him in, he held his own getting to the seeds. The males would go after him, and he'd come right back. During fall and winter, the pintail's diet is mainly seeds and insects. 

The second pintail Filming the Feathers video is set to music by Beethoven (the first video also was set to Beethoven — sort of a theme going here?).

All the photos are from Nov. 24, even the duck-butt photo!

Little Gray Birdies!

The tufted timouse (Baeolophus bicolor) was the first bird to come to my hand for seeds, so it has a special place in my heart. These are talkative, very active birds who flutter about on the ground and in the trees. They are delicate little birds, but stand up for themselves!

Tufted titmouse, Central Park, April 2016

The Filming the Feathers video is set to music by Beethoven (Symphonies 6, 1 and 8), condensed and arranged for recorder, performed by Papilan and obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source. There is a lot of bathing, primarily because when they are enjoying a bath, they are relatively stationary and I can film them!

The photos cover four years, from 2013 through 2016, and a lot of sunflower seeds!

Little Yellow Birdies!

The yellow-breasted chat, the largest warbler to come our way, is a frequent visitor to Central Park, but one that has eluded me for some time — until this year. We had a chat hanging out at Sparrow Rock in Central Park for several days, and more recently a chat has spent 16-plus days at the cemetery at Trinity Church in Lower Manhattan. 

Yellow-breasted chat at Trinity Church, Lower Manhattan, Nov. 18, 2016

I am not a great warbler photographer. These birds flit and fly so fast that I and my camera cannot keep up. But occasionally I get lucky and the little yellow birdies reward my video and photographic efforts. Such was the case on Nov. 1, when I saw the yellow birdie at Sparrow Rock, and then on Nov. 18, when I was so fortunate to have the chat pose for me at Trinity Church. So, as is my wont, I made a video! The music is by Henry Purcell, arranged for recorders, and performed by Papalin.

These little birdies are fattening up on berries and insects before they head south to Central America for the winter. What a delight to see them, and to add them to my Filming the Feather series.

All the photos below are of the Trinity Church chat.