There are scattered very rare western birds continually being spotted across the Northeast. A gorgeous male Painted Bunting in New York City’s Prospect Park made some big news recently, and yesterday Stefan Martin found a Townsend’s Solitaire in the Cos Cob section of Greenwich, Connecticut. Masschusetts, Vermont, Maine and New York have also had Townsend’s Solitaires recently, as you can see on this eBird occurrence map for the species – orange markers are less than 30 days old while others are from October and early November. Keep your eyes open for all sorts of western treats in your own neighborhood, especially if you have a warm patch or isolated habitat among development, live near a coast line, and have foraging areas still filled with insects or lots of fruiting trees and plants.
