New Jersey’s Bird Species Reach 500 (3/30/2024)

     This month the New Jersey Bird Records Committee announced completion of its review of bird reports for 2023.  Six new birds were added to the state list bringing the total of species seen in NJ to 500.  Personally, I only saw two of these new additions.  Two of the six, a Limpkin and a Red-flanked Bluetail, stayed for more than one day and both were only about a half hours drive from my home.  Another, a Black-whiskered Vireo, popped up at my favorite birding patch, Island Beach State Park.  That one I missed twice, the second time only by a few minutes.  Two of the other three were more distant, and not staying long enough for other people to see.  The two one day wonders were a Red-footed Booby and a Mountain Plover.  The sixth bird, a European Robin, was brought to a rehab center and later released.  Here is a summary of NJ’s newest birds.

New Jersey’s first red-flanked bluetail.  © S. Weiss

Red-footed booby was the first new state bird of 2023.  On May 1, a photo of the bird was taken on private property in Tabernacle, Burlington County.  After the bird was identified as a red-footed booby, a few people scoured the area where it was last seen but it had already moved on and was never relocated.  Red-footed boobies are a tropical species rarely viewed from land.

The next day, May 2, a black-whiskered vireo was photographed by a longtime birder at Island Beach State Park, Ocean County.  The following day many people looked for the bird but could not find it.  Then on May 4 another birder saw it briefly in the very same spot it first appeared and managed to get a few photos.  It disappeared before others arrived and it was never seen again.  Black-whiskered vireos are a Caribbean species that breed in Florida’s mangroves.

On August 9, a mountain plover was photographed on a beach down in Stone Harbor, Cape May County.  This bird was a one day wonder, not to be seen again.  Mountain plovers are a species of the western half of the United States.

Little was ever heard of the state’s first European robin.  The bird was the victim of a window strike in Newark, Essex County in October.  It was brought to a wild bird rehabilitation center where it recovered from its injuries and later released.  European robin is obviously a European species.  A couple of eBird reports in previous years of this species for Florida indicate that two of them were stowaways on cross-Atlantic cruise ships.

On November 12, a limpkin was spotted in a residential neighborhood in Manasquan, Monmouth County.  Unlike the previous birds mentioned here, this one hung around for five days to allow many people to make the trip to see it.  On November 16, the local ASPCA captured the bird after deeming it to be in need of rehabilitation.  Limpkins are a southern species, mainly found in Florida and neighboring states.

New Jersey’s first limpkin.   © S. Weiss

Finally, on December 5, a homeowner spotted a red-flanked bluetail at one of his feeders in Whiting, Ocean County.  Not only was this a first for NJ, but it was the first record of the species for the Eastern half of the United States.  As of this writing, the bird continues at the same location.  Hundreds of birders from dozens of states and Canada have travelled to see this bird.  Red-tanked bluetails are a European and Asian species.

Red-flanked bluetail.   © S. Weiss