November 21st 2008 • HOME •
Birds
Fire Island Raptor Enumerators (FIRE keeps track of birds of prey).
Rare visitor from the southern hemisphere, an albatross (N.Y.Times account.)
On the least tern, see our Backlash page.
Piping plover (charadrius melodus): This endangered species receives the most attention (and ridicule). Adults are only six inches long and sand-colored, so they are not easy to spot. They can be identified by their yellow-orange legs, and the black band across the forehead from eye to eye. Almost wiped out early in the century (by feather hunters), the species has been protect by law since 1918. Now the population is starting to come back. The birds arrive (often from the Caribbean) in early spring, and "nest" in shallow depressions on the beach. They have an interesting defense mechanism: If a predator arrives, they pretend to be injured until actually threatened, and then fly away. Hopefully the predator will by then be distracted or confused enough not to notice any eggs among the pebbles and shells. But this is little help against vehicles. In September, survivors flock and are off to the south again. Illustration| Attributes. In 2001 eleven piping plover chicks along the Wilderness beach fledged, FINS reports.
The Cornell Lab of Ornithology reports recent sightings of these birds on Fire Island:
Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Tyrannus savana)
Sh-throated Flycatcher (Myiarchus cinerascens)
Yellow Rail (Coturnicops noveboracensis)
Lark Bunting Calamospiza melanocorys
Black-throated Gray Warbler Dendroica nigrescens
Yellow-Nosed Albatross
Updated 21 May 2003