Searching for the Wild in New York City

Canada goose asleep on the Central Park reservoir.

Red-tailed hawk devouring a brown rat atop a streetlight in Jackson Heights, Queens.

Jay in Central Park, one of the city's birding hot spots.

Belted kingfisher on Randall Island. A passing train is loaded with municipal waste.

Tree swallow at the tidal gate pond, which was built to drain Flushing Meadows.

Rare common loon in Bushwick Lagoon, an inlet of the East River that was long the site of an oil terminal.

American robin looking like Salvador Dalí in Flushing Meadows.

Chickadee nibbling dry sumac berries in winter at Randall's. 

An overwintering phoebe outside a window in Queens.

Black-crowned night heron cleaning its beak in Corona Park.

Great egret on the industrial waterfront of College Point. Much of New York's waterfront is off-limits or inaccessible to humans, creating oases for hardy animals.

Dunlin in the afternoon surf at Rockaway Beach.