{"id":1005919,"date":"2026-01-01T08:32:30","date_gmt":"2026-01-01T13:32:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/?p=1005919"},"modified":"2026-01-03T08:34:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-03T13:34:10","slug":"2025-the-year-in-birds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/birding\/2026\/01\/01\/2025-the-year-in-birds\/","title":{"rendered":"2025 The Year in Birds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Time for the annual wrap-up of what I saw where. Overall 2025 was a medium year. I spent about two months out of the country, though I didn&#8217;t take any major birding trips. I finished the year with 389 species total including 32 life birds including the very endangered and hard to find Ridgway&#8217;s Hawk:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Green-breasted Mango &#8211; Juan Jose Flores Park, Heredia Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Stock Dove &#8211; St. Andrew Square Garden, Edinburgh Scotland<\/li>\n<li>Willow Warbler &#8211; Yorkshire<\/li>\n<li>Eurasian Skylark &#8211; The Coach House, Mesnes Lane, Leyburn Yorkshire <\/li>\n<li>Red-legged Partridge &#8211; The Coach House, Mesnes Lane, Leyburn Yorkshire<\/li>\n<li>Common Swift &#8211; Middleham | Yorkshire, England<\/li>\n<li>Reed Bunting &#8211; Marfield Wetlands NR | Yorkshire, England<\/li>\n<li>Rook &#8211; Marfield Wetlands NR | Yorkshire, England<\/li>\n<li>Red Kite Road from Skipton to Masham | Yorkshire, England<\/li>\n<li>Red Grouse &#8211; Road from Skipton to Masham | Yorkshire, England<\/li>\n<li>Little Gull &#8211; Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge&#8211;West Pond | New York<\/li>\n<li>Costa Rican Swift &#8211; Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Slate-headed Tody-Flycatcher &#8211; La perica | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Riverside Wren &#8211; Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Gray-cowled Wood-Rail &#8211; Botanika Osa Peninsula | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Ruddy-breasted Seedeater &#8211; finca san martin | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Gray-headed Tanager &#8211; Ecotur\u00edstico La Tarde | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Charming Hummingbird &#8211; Ecotur\u00edstico La Tarde | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>White-crested Coquette &#8211; Ecotur\u00edstico La Tarde | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Great Curassow &#8211; Finca Miguel Sanchez, Rio Piro | Costa Rica<\/li>\n<li>Laughing Falcon &#8211; V\u00eda 245, Golfito | Costa Rica <\/li>\n<li>Bare-throated Tiger-Heron &#8211; V\u00eda 245, | Costa Rica <\/li>\n<li>Golden-naped Woodpecker &#8211; Botanika Osa Peninsula <\/li>\n<li>Greater Antillean Bullfinch &#8211; Westin Puntacana | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Hispaniolan Lizard-Cuckoo &#8211; Westin Puntacana | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Black-crowned Palm-Tanager &#8211; Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Stolid Flycatcher &#8211; Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Broad-billed Tody &#8211; Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Vervain Hummingbird &#8211; Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Hispaniolan Mango &#8211; Punta Cana Ecological Reserve | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Palmchat &#8211; Punta Cana | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Hispaniolan Woodpecker &#8211;  Punta Cana | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<li>Ridgway&#8217;s Hawk &#8211;  Punta Cana | Dominican Republic<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Closest to home in Brooklyn, I added Purple Martin and Greater White-fronted Goose to my county list. Purple Martin  is a regular migrant, and Greater White-fronted Goose seems to be becoming more common. My Kings County list now stands at 302, not counting escapees and hybrids. I also pushed my New York County list to 200 by adding several new species, topped up with a Yellow-throated Warbler in Carl Schurz Park in December. <\/p>\n<p>New birds for New York State included Little Gull and Black-necked Stilt (Queens, Jamaica Bay West Pond) and Fork-tailed Flycatcher (Manhattan, Randall&#8217;s Island). I also added ten species to my Louisiana state list, <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Canada Warbler<\/li>\n<li>Northern Waterthrush<\/li>\n<li>Yellow-throated Vireo<\/li>\n<li>Magnificent Frigatebird<\/li>\n<li>Black Tern<\/li>\n<li>Semipalmated Sandpiper<\/li>\n<li>Sanderling<\/li>\n<li>Hudsonian Whimbrel<\/li>\n<li>Red-eyed Vireo<\/li>\n<li>Baltimore Oriole<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>By visiting Grand Isle for the first time, I  added 16 species to my Jefferson Parish list, now at 115 species, and 6 to my Orleans Parish list, now at 192.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m not sure what I&#8217;m doing in 2026, but I do hope to be able to chase a fee more birds closer to home. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Time for the annual wrap-up of what I saw where. Overall 2025 was a medium year. I spent about two months out of the country, though I didn&#8217;t take any major birding trips. I finished the year with 389 species total including 32 life birds including the very endangered and hard to find Ridgway&#8217;s Hawk: [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1005919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-birding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1005919"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005919\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1005925,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1005919\/revisions\/1005925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1005919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1005919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.elharo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1005919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}