Harbor Herons

New York City, the Audubon, and egrets have a common history going back more than a hundred years. At the end of the Nineteenth Century, a New York City resident, George Bird Grinnell, started the first Audubon. He brought together like-minded people who hoped to stop the slaughter of egrets, which were being killed by the hundreds of thousands so that their plumes could be shipped to New York and used to decorate hats.

The millinery trade brought egrets, and several other bird species, to the brink of extinction. Grinnell's Audubon and the organizations that followed it brought protection to the egrets and scores of other beleaguered species with the enactment of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1914.

With new protection, egret and heron populations recovered and spread beyond their historical southern ranges. By 1960, egrets were nesting as far north as New Hampshire. There were, however, no egret colonies in New York City.

Imagine the delight of New York birders when Scotty Jenkins found egrets nesting on Pralls Island in the Arthur Kill on the western border of Staten Island! The Clean Water Act of 1972 had allowed water quality to improve enough to support prey species for the egrets. Following Jenkin's discovery, New York City Audubon began efforts to protect the nesting site, and started an annual census of breeding herons, egrets and ibises in the city.

Eighteen years later, the censuses continue and the birds are prospering.

Recently, NYC Audubon used its experience to testify before the Waterfronts Committee of the City Council about the egrets, herons and ibis that nest on the islands of NY Harbor. Click here to read testimony.