Northern Gannets sometimes gather in great numbers off of Coney Island Beach (here seen from the Rockaway Peninsula with Coney Island in the background). Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Coney Island is today a peninsula in South Brooklyn, hosting a diverse seaside community and famous for its amusement parks and hot dogs. Possibly named for the rabbits (in Dutch, “konijn”) that once abounded here, Coney Island was actually once several islands—a shifting mosaic of sand bars and tidal waterways. Together, these islands formed the western-most of the long chain of barrier islands flanking Long Island’s South Shore, all the way out to Montauk. Over the last three centuries, the original shifting sands of Coney Island were consolidated by people into one land mass. The eastern end of the tidal inlet was filled in, connecting to the mainland and producing the peninsula that we have today. Patches of wetland bird habitat remain, however—and the peninsula’s beaches offer a good vantage point to observe waterfowl and other seabirds.
The many shorebirds that stop over along Brooklyn's south coast are sometimes joined by less common species like the Marbled Godwit. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
A Least Tern feeds its offspring at Plumb Beach. Photo: Keith Michael
All three scoter species, including this Black Scoter (a molting male) can been along Brooklyn's shore over the winter. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
The many shorebirds that stop over along Brooklyn's south coast are sometimes joined by less common species like the Marbled Godwit. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
A Least Tern feeds its offspring at Plumb Beach. Photo: Keith Michael
All three scoter species, including this Black Scoter (a molting male) can been along Brooklyn's shore over the winter. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Coney Island Creek Park and neighboring Leon S. Kaiser Park, at the northwest corner of Coney Island, face Coney Island Creek—and are directly across from Calvert Vaux Park (and from the Home Depot). Coney Island Creek itself has been poorly treated by humankind over the years. But is nevertheless a sheltered area that attracts big numbers of wintering waterfowl and other waterbirds, and its position at the western end of the barrier island chain makes it a great fall migration watch spot. eBirders have recorded 244 species in Coney Island Creek Park; rarities have included Eared Grebe, Thick-billed Murre, Black-headed Gull, Sooty Tern, White-winged Dove, and Cave Swallow.
Vantage points on the water include a parking lot/overlook at the northern end of 23rd Street, as well as the waterside promenade in Leon S. Kaiser Park. Large numbers of the common dabbling geese and ducks congregate here—but so do many diving birds, including both scaup species (look also for Redhead), Bufflehead, Red-breasted and Hooded Mergansers, both loon species, and Pied-billed and Horned Grebes.
Wintering sea ducks become more abundant as you make your way westwards towards Coney Island Creek Park itself, which is a wilder spot of dunes and beach facing Gravesend Bay. This is a good spot for Long-tailed Duck, Horned Grebe, and loons—and check for scoters, Common Goldeneye, and Red-necked Grebe. Among the large number of wintering common gulls, also look for Bonaparte’s Gulls as well as Glaucous and Iceland Gulls, and rarer species. The dunes may also host wintering Snow Buntings and occasional Horned Larks. If you follow the beach westwards, you will arrive at Norton Point; check the small rock jetty for Purple Sandpiper.
During spring and fall migration, Coney Island Creek Park proper is also a great spot for migrants of all kinds—reminding us again that Coney Island is a barrier island—just a couple hops west from fabled migration destinations like Robert Moses and Jones Beach State Parks. On mornings following a night with favorable winds (southwest or light west in spring, northwest to west in fall), large numbers of migrants may pass through here, and a line of Black Locusts in the park may provide a welcome stopping point. From a vantage point at the western edge of the trees, good numbers of flycatchers, warblers, sparrows, and other songbirds are observed here. A good variety of shorebirds is also seen here during migration, though in small numbers.
Spring through fall, Coney Island Creek is visited by a good number of NYC’s breeding waterbirds, including Common, Forster’s and Least Terns, Laughing Gulls, Black Skimmers, American Oystercatchers, and waders such as egrets and night-herons. "}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content">
When to Go
To learn about bird migration times and get other timing tips, see the When to Bird in NYC guide on our Birding 101 page.
For operating hours of Coney Island Creek Park and Leon S. Kaiser Park, see the “Directions and Visiting Info” section, below.
Subway: The D/F/N/Q Coney Island-Stillwell Ave. station is a 20- to 30-minute walk away.
Other Resources
Read more about the geographical history Coney Island Creek Park (and Coney Island itself). coneyislandbeachhs
Long-tailed Ducks can sometimes be viewed up close from Pat Auletta Steeplechase Pier, off Coney Island Beach. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Coney Island Beach and Pier
Birding Highlights by the Season
(no star = birding is not very productive, ✸ = somewhat productive, ✸✸ = productive, ✸✸✸ = very productive)
Spring Migration ✸
Lingering waterfowl, Northern Gannet
Summer ✸
Foraging gulls, and terns, Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher
Fall Migration ✸
Some sparrows and other land birds
Winter ✸✸✸
Sea ducks including Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, scoters, grebes, and loons; gulls and possible alcids; Northern Gannet; Great Cormorant; Sanderling, Ruddy Turnstone, Purple Sandpiper
Year-Round Highlights
Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel, Double-crested Cormorant, gulls
While Coney Island’s beachfront is fabled for its amusement parks and entertainment—today including Luna Park, New York Aquarium, an ice-skating rink, and a minor league baseball stadium—its over 2.5 miles of sandy beach, rock jetties, and pier provide excellent vantage points to see seabirds out on Coney Island Channel and Lower New York Bay.
From late October through early April, large numbers of wintering waterfowl and seabirds can be seen here—from the beach itself, from the 35th Street Overlook at the beach’s west end, and from the Coney Island Pier (a.k.a. “Pat Auletta Steeplechase Pier”). eBirders have observed 139 species at Coney Island Beach; less common species have included Parasitic Jaeger, Brown Pelican, Thick-Billed Murre, and Grey-hooded Gull.
Coney Island Beach is an excellent spot to see sea ducks: long-tailed Duck, Bufflehead, and both loons abound, and all three scoter species are frequently observed. Check for Common Goldeneye, Red-necked Grebe, as well as Common Eiders, which have been seen with increasing frequency. Also look for alcids; Razorbill are regularly seen here, some winters. Among large numbers of the more common gulls, good numbers of Bonaparte’s Gulls are seen, as well as rarities.
Sanderlings forage on the beach here, and check the series of rock jetties that jut out from the beach for sea ducks, gulls, Great Cormorant, and wintering shorebirds, including Purple Sandpiper. In late winter and early spring, Coney island may be the best spot in the City to see diving Northern Gannets—flocks into the thousands have been observed here. Hunting falcons also may also show up—Peregrine Falcon and American Kestrel are seen through the winter.
Though Coney Island’s beach is too populated with sun-thirsty humans to allow beach-nesting birds a chance here, in the summertime, the common gull and tern species abound, and American Oystercatcher and Black Skimmer are seen frequently as well. During migration, a good variety of songbirds, particularly fall sparrows, are observed here.
To learn about bird migration times and get other timing tips, see the When to Bird in NYC guide on our Birding 101 page.
For operating hours of Coney Island Beach and Pier, see the “Directions and Visiting Info” section, below.
eBird
View eBird hotspot records for Coney Island Beach to explore recent bird sightings, species bar charts, and more. (Click on “Hotspot Map” at left to see other hotspots along the beach, including the pier and overlook.)
Personal Safety
This public beach is generally well frequented and safe to bird; the pier is popular for fishing and sight-seeing. Walking out on the jetties is not advised—they can be quite slippery, particularly if icy in the wintertime. (And you are likely to scare away the birds you were hoping to see!)
The Coney Island Beach and boardwalk can be accessed from the street at many point along its length. \
Subway: The D/F/N/Q Coney Island-Stillwell Ave., F/Q West 8th St. – New York Aquarium, and Q Ocean Parkway stations are within close walking distance to the beach. manhattanbeachhs
Great Cormorants may be spotted from Manhattan Beach Park in the colder months. Photo: fredfuncky/CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
Manhattan Beach Park
Birding Highlights by the Season
(no star = birding is not very productive, ✸ = somewhat productive, ✸✸ = productive, ✸✸✸ = very productive)
Spring Migration ✸
Lingering waterfowl, Northern Gannet
Summer ✸
Foraging gulls and terns, Black Skimmer, American Oystercatcher
Fall Migration ✸
Some sparrows and other land birds
Winter ✸✸✸
Sea ducks including scoters, Long-tailed Duck, Common Goldeneye, Common Eider, grebes, and loons; gulls and possible alcids; Northern Gannets; Great Cormorant; Purple Sandpiper
Year-Round Highlights
Peregrine Falcon, American Kestrel, Double-crested Cormorant, gulls
Manhattan Beach Park, at the eastern end of Coney Island, is the site of a long-gone 19th-century resort. Built upon filled-in saltmarsh before Coney Island’s amusement park heyday, the swanky local once attracted New York’s upper crust for the summer. Visitors, who arrived on a now defunct rail line, stayed at the fashionable Manhattan, Oriental, and Brighton Hotels, enjoying fine dining and concerts by bandmaster John Philip Sousa.
Today, all of that 19th-century architecture (not to mention the saltmarsh) is gone, replaced by residences and Manhattan Beach Park. The park includes ball fields and playgrounds—and a beach that provides some great winter birding. eBirders have recorded 106 species here, including rarer species such as Brown Pelican, Razorbill, and Barrow’s Goldeneye. Expected sightings here are similar to that of neighboring Coney Island Beach, above, with a few tweaks. This is a particularly good spot to see Great Cormorant, as well as Common Goldeneye and Common Eider.
This public beach is generally well frequented and safe to bird. Walking out on the jetties is not advised—they can be quite slippery, particularly if icy in the wintertime. (And you are likely to scare away the birds you were hoping to see!)
Directions and Visiting Info
View the NYC Parks page for Manhattan Beach Park for operating hours, directions, a park map, and additional background information.
View a Google map of Manhattan Beach Park. (Note: when driving, parking is available in a large lot in the park, off Oriental Boulevard.)
Subway: A visit combines well with a birding stop at [Link to anchor in section below: Sheepshead Bay], as Manhattan Beach is a 20-25 minutes’ walk from the B/Q Sheepshead Bay station, crossing over Sheepshead Bay via the Ocean Avenue pedestrian bridge.sheepsheadhs
Seldom seen waterfowl like the Redhead can sometimes be seen fairly up close by the piers of Sheepshead Bay. Photo: Will Pollard/CC BY-ND 2.0
Sheepshead Bay Piers
Birding Highlights by the Season
(no star = birding is not very productive, ✸ = somewhat productive, ✸✸ = productive, ✸✸✸ = very productive)
Spring Migration
Lingering waterfowl
Summer
Foraging gulls and occasional terns; common dabbling waterfowl
Fall Migration
Sparrows and other songbirds
Winter ✸✸✸
A good variety of dabbling and diving waterfowl including frequent rarities; unusual gull species
Sheepshead Bay, named for the “Sheepshead,” an edible fish that swims in its waters, is the name of both the body of water separating mainland Brooklyn from the eastern end of Coney Island, and of the residential community north of the bay. The bay itself is the eastern end of what was once a continuous waterway to Coney Island Creek ( making Coney Island and actual island). Today hosting a busy marina bordered by equally busy Emmons Avenue, Sheepshead Bay does not exactly provide a tranquil respite from city life. However, it does supply a very comfortable resting place for abundant wintering waterbirds—and extremely leisurely waterfowl watching for birders.
During the colder months, a surprising variety of ducks, geese, and gulls can be found here, quite close up. A walk along the piers and/or across the Ocean Avenue pedestrian bridge may reveal, among large quantities of Mallards, American Black Ducks, Canada Geese, and Mute Swans, good numbers of Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, both Greater and Lesser Scaup (this is one of the easiest places to compare these easily confusable species), both loons, and even less common diving ducks like Canvasback and Redhead.
Hard-to-find, coveted species are sometimes easily accessible here, including Harlequin Duck and Razorbill. Gulls tend to congregate at the bay’s western end, in Holocaust Memorial Park; both Black-headed and Iceland Gulls have recently been cooperative sightings here, among the more common gull species. "}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content">
When to Go
To learn about bird migration times and get other timing tips, see the When to Bird in NYC guide on our Birding 101 page.
Subway: The B/Q Sheepshead Bay station is five-minute walk from the western end of the Sheepshead Bay marina.plumbbeachhs
A Clapper Rail walks the marshes of Plumb Beach. Photo: Ryan F. Mandelbaum
Plumb Beach
Birding Highlights by the Season
(no star = birding is not very productive, ✸ = somewhat productive, ✸✸ = productive, ✸✸✸ = very productive)
Spring Migration ✸✸ Horseshoe crabs breed and lay their eggs mid-May–early June, attracting Ruddy Turnstone, Laughing Gull, Sanderling, occasional Red Knot and rarer shorebirds; warblers and other songbirds in upland areas
This small vestige of natural beach, dune, and saltmarsh, straddled by the Belt Parkway and under constant threat of erosion, is an example of what the south coast of Brooklyn used to looked like… a long, time ago. Originally “Plumb (or Plum) Island,” it was connected to the mainland in the 1930s through the filling of “Hog Creek.” Plumb Beach is part of Gateway National Recreation Area, but its parking lot and part of the upland is managed by NYC Parks.
For its size, Plumb Beach packs a pretty big punch. A total of 254 bird species have been observed here according to eBird records, thanks to the site’s combination of beach and tidal mudflats, dune, and saltmarsh (and thanks to the adjacent Marine Park Preserve, just north of here). In total, 10 tern species and 11 gull species have been observed here! Unusual species have been spotted here over the years have included Franklin’s Gull, Northern Wheatear, and Eastern Yellow Wagtail (the only sighting for the East Coast).
"}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content"> Plumb Beach is important ecologically as a primary NYC site for spawning Atlantic Horseshoe Crabs: these ancient creatures come ashore in great numbers on nights with a full or new moon high tide, in May and June. The billions of eggs they lay are important food for migrating shorebirds, particularly the Rufa subspecies of the Red Knot, listened as threatened in New York State. (LINK: Learn more about NYC Audubon’s horseshoe crab monitoring project.)
During spring and fall migration, pretty much all shorebird species that are likely in our area have been recorded here as well as rarities, including Buff-breasted Sandpiper, Hudsonian Godwit, and Ruff. A path from the parking lot provides easy access to the beach. If you get here early—before beach-walkers and dogs, kite-surfers, and other non-birding folks—you may be able to watch migrant sandpipers and plovers as they forage on exposed mudflats. Check the peeps for relative rarities like White-rumped and Baird’s Sandpipers.
The saltmarsh on the northern side of the site is good for species that prefer fresher water like Least and Spotted. It can be accessed either by walking west on the beach and around the tip of the peninsula—or by a path that leads along the Belt Parkway to the north-west corner of the marsh. (Take care not to walk on the fragile dunes.) Plan to come at low tide to see shorebirds on the mudflats. (See “Special Birding Notes” below to get tide info.)
"}" data-trix-content-type="undefined" class="attachment attachment--content"> A good variety of migrating land birds also stop over in the dune scrub and trees; in October and November, this is a spot to take a deep dive into marsh sparrows, as Seaside, Saltmarsh, Nelson’s, and various sub-species and hybrids have been ID’d here. Accipiters also hunt here in the fall, while American Kestrel and Peregrine Falcon may be seen year-round.
During nesting season, this Plumb Beach a great foraging spot for fish-eating birds that nest in the area; a few species breed here. Osprey are frequent visitors--as are Black Skimmer and Common, Forster’s and Least Terns. (Royal Terns are most common in fall.) Clapper Rail likely nests in the saltmarsh (another good reason to arrive early), as does Willet, and possibly American Oystercatcher.
Egrets, herons, and night-herons come to forage in the marsh as well, including Little Blue Heron and Glossy Ibis, which nest on nearby islands in Jamaica Bay. The marsh and dune habitat is also big enough to host some less common breeding passerines: Saltmarsh and Seaside Sparrow may nest here in very small numbers, as they do in Marine Park.
Other likely breeders include Common Yellowthroat, Yellow Warbler, and Eastern Towhee, and Boat-tailed Grackle. Tree and Barn Swallows also abound in the summer. The common dabbling ducks and geese are here year-round, but this is also a good spot for wintering diving birds such as Bufflehead, Red-breasted Merganser, Horned Grebe, Long-tailed Duck, and both loon species. Watch for Northern Harrier hunting over the dunes and marsh.
Though birding in the early a.m. is good birding practice in general, it is particularly helpful if you aim to see secretive marsh birds such as Clapper Rails and Salt Marsh Sparrows. Also, if you are looking for waterbirds and shorebirds, it is generally best to go at low tide at any time of year. View online tide information. (Under the bold heading “Long Island South Shore, Shinnecock Inlet to Mill Basin,” select “Plumb Beach Channel,” choose the month and day you are birding, and click “Get Tides.”)
When to Go
To learn about bird migration times and get other timing tips, see the When to Bird in NYC guide on our Birding 101 page.
For operating hours of Plumb Beach, see the “Directions and Visiting Info” section, below.
Parts of Plumb Beach, particularly the saltmarsh and dune area, may not be heavily frequented, are remote and obscured from view, and may be used for other recreational purposes. Birding with a friend is recommended. If traveling by car, take care in exiting and entering the Belt Parkway.
View a Google Map of Plumb Beach. The Plumb Beach parking lot is accessed directly from the right lane of the eastbound Belt Parkway. A bike path from Sheepshead Bay also runs alongside the park.
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