Annual count shows 6,400 birds in Central Park

December 22, 2006

The one-day survey by teams of birding enthusiasts occurred last Sunday, for the 107th time since 1899. New York City Audubon led the effort with Central Park Conservancy as a co-host of the survey, which covered all 843 acres of the famed park in the middle of Manhattan, Department of Parks and Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe said.

Most of the birds were the usual suspects that inhabit or visit the park regularly — rock doves, aka pigeons, herring gulls and common grackles. But this year's canvass turned up a few that Benepe said were rare or uncommon at this time of year — a white-throated sparrow, a rusty blackbird, a tundra swan, a palm warbler, a kingfisher and two great blue herons.

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