With 500 species, Long Island is a birders' paradise

On a cold, Saturday afternoon, the trees in Bethpage State Park might seem barren to a casual observer. But Callan Fleck has quickly spotted the avian life teeming on leafless limbs and desolate winter fields, rattling off their names with ease and familiarity.

A hawk. A blue jay. A dark-eyed junco and a red-bellied woodpecker.

Fleck captures their images on her Canon Powershot SX60 camera and walks on, through the woods near the park’s empty picnic grounds — bereft of humans but, as she demonstrates, rich in the variety of winged life that has fascinated her since she was a little girl.

“Nature and photography were both childhood passions,” said Fleck, 37, who is married with a 4-year-old son. “My father was a big nature lover. He took me to Jones Beach, Point Lookout and Bethpage State Park. And I’ve had a camera with me since I was like 9.”

As part of a pandemic-fueled surge in interest in Long Island’s outdoors, Fleck is one of many amateur naturalist-photographers who are discovering and documenting the birds that — perhaps surprisingly after decades of development — still manage to flourish here.

Fleck’s claim to fame is photographing all seven species of woodpeckers that are known to visit Long Island — a feat that took her seven years. (For the record, they are the red-bellied woodpecker, northern flicker, downy woodpecker, hairy woodpecker, yellow-bellied sapsucker, and the two rarest, the redheaded woodpecker and the pileated woodpecker.) Her November post in the Facebook group Long Island Wildlife Photography got more than 2,000 likes and hundreds of shares and comments from fellow enthusiasts marveling that she captured the rare varieties.

Of course, woodpeckers aren’t the only species of bird to be found here. “We have land birds, freshwater birds, we have open ocean birds, we have long distance migrating birds,” said Stony Brook University marine ecologist and author Carl Safina. “There is an incredibly high number of species.”

HABITAT DIVERSITY

Estimates of the bird population vary, but experts say between 300 to 500 species can be found at various times of the year on Long Island. That’s a significant chunk of the 800 species estimated by the National Wildlife Federation to inhabit the entire United States.

The reason for Long Island’s high numbers becomes clear when looking at a map: It is a giant flyway — and essentially, a massive landing strip — stretching out into the ocean.

“It’s a fantastic place for birds,” said Paul Sweet, collection manager in the Ornithology Department of the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan. “Long Island is a very unique piece of land, with varied terrain. You’ve got the ocean, you’ve got the sandy beaches of the South Shore, the rocky coast of the North Shore, salt marsh, pine barrens, an incredible range of habitats for birds.”

And yet, unless you have a bird feeder in your backyard, it’s sometimes easy to forget that we share this island with them. “I do wonder to myself, ‘How did I miss this when I was growing up?’’ said Steve Hyman, 70, a North Massapequa native who lives in Hauppauge. Like Fleck, he is now a devoted amateur bird photographer.

The images they capture can be posted on the Facebook groups for amateur bird and nature photography that have blossomed in recent years: Long Island Wildlife Photography, founded 11 years ago, boasts over 32,000 members. Birds of Long Island Photography, created in 2012, has 12,400 members. Another Facebook group, Long Island Nature Photography, has attracted more than 5,000 members since its inception just two years ago.

Information on birds spotted and photographed can be shared though sites such as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology’s ebird.com, which describes itself as one of the world’s “largest biodiversity-science projects.” (The site, affiliated with Cornell University in Ithaca, also claims a 20% annual growth in participation.)

COVID PLUS TECHNOLOGY

The increase in people exploring the parks and shorelines looking for birds is not only the result of a pandemic that compelled homebound Long Islanders to escape in the outdoors five years ago. “A huge factor is the advent of digital technology and how much it’s improved in the last decade,” Sweet said. “It’s not hard today to get a digital camera with a lens that can turn anyone into a bird photographer.”

Daryl Ramrattan, a Trinidad native, said he grew up surrounded by exotic bird species like parrots, macaws and hummingbirds. When the 38-year-old moved to Long Island in 1995, he was surprised to discover its own plethora of winged creatures and began logging them and reporting his sightings to eBird.com. He photographed them and started getting some attention for his work. “I remember the first time Long Island Wildlife Photography used one of my photos, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh!’ I was blown away,” said Ramrattan, who lives in Middle Island.

What Ramrattan said he really likes about the Long Island bird watching and photography community is the camaraderie — how news of the sighting of a rare bird will bring birders together. “It’s amazing how well we get together to find this bird,” Ramrattan said.

WHITMAN HEARD THE BIRDS

Human fascination with winged creatures is, of course, not new. On Long Island, one of the most famous bird enthusiasts of the past — even though we might not think of him as a “birder” per se — is the poet Walt Whitman, who was born in Huntington and returned often to Long Island, in large part to immerse himself in the natural world he had grown up in and that was so important to his poetry.

“He credits Long Island with the birth of his artistry,” said NYU professor Karen Karbiener, a Whitman scholar whose biography of the poet will be published next year. “How did he become a poet? His parents were barely literate. He had to drop out of school. But when he explains it, in poems, he says he gets his message from the birds, from the sounds of the ocean.”

To Safina, who has also written about Whitman and his relationship to the natural world of Long Island, “There’s no doubt he would have been out there with the bird watchers today.”

The bird population was far larger in Whitman’s time. In the late 19th century, though, unrestricted hunting led to what Safina calls an “uncontrolled slaughter” of birds for sport and to serve in upscale New York City restaurants. And Long Island’s development in the 20th century eliminated many of their habitats. Today, while they still face threats, things aren’t all doom and gloom for the birds of Long Island. Thanks to the banning of DDT and other pesticides, plus greater protection for birds and their habitats, Safina said, “We have some populations of birds that are replenishing.” Safina, who grew up in Syosset in the 1970s, recalls that “when I was in high school, ospreys were almost completely erased from the East Coast. Bald eagles were almost completely gone from the United States, south of Alaska. And peregrine falcons were almost in danger of complete extinction. Those three have all had fantastic recoveries.”

Bird flu, however, remains a concern, with more than 200 New York confirmed cases in wild birds reported in 2025 as of early March, according to the Cornell Wildlife Health Lab.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta is urging bird hobbyists to maintain a safe distance from wild birds and to avoid any area contaminated with animal feces, saliva and mucus. Bird feeders should be cleaned regularly while wearing disposable gloves.

OCCASIONAL FRICTION

The terms bird watchers and birders are often used interchangeably, though some say that the former are more casual, the latter more serious in their appreciation and study.

Birders, Sweet said, are often out to identify certain species — and may also take pictures of those they see, to share with their colleagues. “Most birders will record what they’ve seen and use photos as documentation,” he said.

Bird photographers, by contrast, are looking to get the best possible image.

This sometimes leads to friction.

“There are some photographers who will do anything to get a better shot,” Hyman said. “They’ll disrupt the birds, they’ll flush them out to get them to fly. The strict birders will get upset at that.”

But, he adds, the majority of those who consider themselves bird watchers and bird photographers “get along.” (Even so, the Long Island Wildlife Photography Facebook group publishes a long list of do’s and don’ts for posting photos, specifically to avoid birds being harassed.)

Many of the photographers also consider themselves birders, as well.

“It starts as one hobby and grows into several others,” said Hyman.

In sum, there’s considerable crossover in the bird watching/photography world.

“You see folks going out with a camera, you see folks going out with binoculars,” said Ramrattan. “And often, you will see them going out with both.”

One of the many benefits of traipsing through Long Island’s parks and beaches in search of birds is the physical activity, Hyman said, adding that some days he can “get over 20,000 steps in.”

There’s also plenty of potential for mental exercise.

“I made it a goal of mine to learn all the species of birds on Long Island,” said Fleck, who said she began studying field guides in 2016. “At the same time I wanted to build my own library of birds that I took pictures of.” (She now has over 800 images, many of which can be seen on her Facebook account.

Ramrattan said observing birds can be a solitary pursuit. “I’ve definitely met some birders who are kind of solo artists,” he said. “This is their escape. But the majority are friendly, open and love to teach. All of us are passionate about what we do.”

That includes Fleck who, after documenting all seven species of woodpeckers, is setting her sights on a new goal. “I was thinking birds of prey next,” she said. “Hawks, falcons and owls.”

Fleck notes that there are seven species of hawks alone on Long Island. Would finding and photographing all of them take another seven years? “I don’t know, but it would definitely be fun,” she said.