NEW YORK—The annual Central Park bird count was held on Sunday afternoon. The count is done each year to track the number and type of birds found in the park and has been done for 109 consecutive years.
Originally initiated by the Audubon Society, it is still organized by the bird watching society and is done in conjunction with the Parks Department, who assist the annual outing by organizing volunteers and sending them out on their task with a Park Ranger.
A small army of volunteers of about 75 people came out on Sunday and was divided into groups to count birds in seven different zones in the park, including the great lawn, the Ramble, the reservoir area and the four corners of the park.
Parks Department spokesman Phil Abramson said the count this year was 6,041 birds from 55 different species. That’s down from last year’s count of 7,771 birds. Up this year were the number of rare bird called a Pine Sisken, about 50 were seen in the Ramble area of the park, a large increase over last year. Another special find this year was the sighting of a wild turkey in the park that managed to survive this year’s Thanksgiving.
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