City Room: Flocking to a Park to Stalk Prey

“They’re high in the branches today,” said one of the photographers, David Krauss. The other, Phil Jeffrey, nodded. Many photographers stalk celebrities in Manhattan; these men train their lenses on prey of the winged variety.

A red-bellied woodpecker flitted by, and the men did not bat an eyelash. But suddenly, a brilliant red bird appeared: by golly, a summer tanager.

“Pop it,” Mr. Jeffrey said. Mr. Krauss did, and he beamed. In 30 years of photographing birds in the Ramble, he said, it was only the third time he had seen one. And there was other tantalizing news being passed among the many bird-watchers swarming the woods. There was a yellow-throated warbler, and perhaps even a cerulean warbler: a holy grail sighting for these parts.

“We’re hearing it might be here,” Mr. Krauss said, “but it might just be talk.”

To a nonbirder, Manhattan may not seem like an ideal place to spot birds. But amid the dense thicket of buildings and roadways, Central Park appears as a green oasis, and the wooded middle part known as the Ramble beckons as a rest stop for migratory birds; perhaps 250 species can be spotted there in any year.

This, in turn, beckons bird followers: those who photograph and those who just like to watch.

But relations between photographers can get strained, especially around watering holes where they gather closer together, Mr. Jeffrey and Mr. Krauss said.

“Too many monkeys in the cage sometimes,” Mr. Jeffrey, a scientist at Princeton University, said, sighing.

Technological advances have added new wrinkles to bird-watching practices. Many birders in the Ramble monitor Twitter and send out word (one hashtag is #cpkbirds) about when and where they see a notable bird. There are also applications that include a wide variety of bird songs, which can be used to attract birds. But some birders criticize that practice, saying it distracts birds from the tasks at hand, like making a nest.

Last Sunday, the Huntington/Oyster Bay chapter of the Audubon Society arrived at 7 a.m.

“There’s a saying here: After 8, it’s too late,” said the chapter’s president, Stella Miller, of Syosset, N.Y., who helped lead 23 birders along the Ramble’s winding pathways. Before then, she said, fewer people are in the park, and the birds are more active.

Also leading the tour was a wunderkind of Manhattan birding, Jacob Drucker, 18, of the New York State Young Birders Club. His keen eye helped them spot a summer tanager.

Kyle Bardwell, 17, a high school senior from Ossining, was also afoot in the Ramble. He had already seen 14 species of warblers, he said. “It’s very exciting, bird-watching,” he said. “It’s almost like a sport.”