Cover image: Eastern Kingbird on the Peninsula. Inwood Hill Park. July 6, 2023
For the past few days, as well as for the past few months and possibly for years, an Eastern Kingbird has fiercely guarded its seasonal territory on the Peninsula in Inwood Hill Park. This narrow strip of land, home to the neighborhood’s Little League baseball games and a popular spot for picnics, offers great views of the Henry Hudson Bridge and the Palisades across the Hudson River. Earlier this week a Great Blue Heron was spotted fishing just off the tip.
A territorial bird by nature, the Eastern Kingbird often sits near the top of one of the trees overlooking the Salt Marsh. Its scientific name is Tyrannus tyrannus. From the tree tops, this flycatcher can easily forage for insects.
Eastern Kingbirds frequently vocalize in a high pitch metallic voice. On the Peninsula in Inwood, the bird finds itself in competition with Northern Mockingbirds as well as a Song Sparrow that has commanded a tree facing the Harlem River. The birds seem to have worked out an agreement.
The Eastern Kingbird is rather distinguished in appearance. With its black head, dark wings, a white square tail, and a contrasting light throat and underbelly, this medium size bird is relatively easy to spot. It holds itself upright with excellent posture.
The Peninsula in Inwood Hill Park makes an ideal summer home for an Eastern Kingbird. They prefer to breed in grasslands and wetlands, and they thrive along the edges of the forest and water. This territory checks all the boxes. For the winter season, they are known as long-distance migrants with destinations in the forests of South America.
Recent posts
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A burst of spring weather and unseasonably warm days brought a variety of birds to Inwood Hill Park in Northern Manhattan this week. The three days in early March— March 9 through March 11— felt like a gift, especially after a long winter of cold temperatures and abundant snow. Many New Yorkers talked about how… Read more: An Early Spring Preview of the Birds of Inwood - The Snowiest of Snows, and a Bald Eagle Appears
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Northern Cardinals have resumed singing their song of spring this past week, so you would never know that NYC and parts of the Tri-State area are currently under a blizzard warning. As I write, the temperatures are mild, and the sky is blue. The blizzard warning is the first such weather alert issued for NYC… Read more: Blizzard Warning: A Great Blue Heron Hunkers Down, and Other Stories of the Birds of Inwood in a Cold and Snowy Month - A Red-shouldered Hawk for Valentine’s Day
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A quarrel of sparrows has descended on my fire escape each morning this January, asking for some seeds. A year or so ago, I tossed a handful of seeds out my kitchen window. They never forgot. Recently, as the snows and cold weather have descended on the city and on much of the rest of… Read more: The Snows of January and the Birds of Inwood
Birds of Inwood 
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