December 22, 2025
The arrival of 2026 is close at hand, which means that it is time once again to review the most noteworthy birding observations of the past 12 months. 2025 was a memorable year on several fronts, featuring a handful of trips away from home, including one across the sea, and a great deal of productive local exploration. My year list total reached 386 species, with 11 lifers and 7 new state birds among them. It is always difficult to winnow out a Top 10 list from the annual bounty of birds, but there were undoubtedly a number of standout species worthy of extra celebration this year. Without further ado, here are my personal picks for the best birds of 2025!
Honorable Mention: Common Raven
Ravens have long been in contention for the title of my favorite species on Planet Earth, and it seems that their claim to the crown grows ever stronger with each passing year. 2025 was no exception, featuring a number of unforgettable encounters with these clever, charismatic corvids. Whether I was traveling far from home or hanging around my own neighborhood here in NYC, ravens were there to provide consistent entertainment. Apart from the arrival of our own “little raven,” the most memorable sighting of the year involved an enterprising individual that I observed warming scraps of frozen roadkill on the power lines outside my apartment on a cold December morning: a remarkable case of apparent tool use that showcases the ingenuity and adaptability that this species is so famous for. These birds never fail to find new ways to surprise me, even after a lifetime of admiring their antics!
Yes, chef!
#10: Cory’s Shearwater
Experiencing a familiar bird in an entirely new setting that completely recontextualizes our understanding of the species is one of birding’s great joys. 2025 introduced me to a whole new side of the Cory’s Shearwater, a bird I know well from years of boat trips and seawatches. For starters, the recent split between this species and Scopoli’s Shearwater incentivized more intentional scrutiny of individuals in this complex during my pelagic birding efforts. On my summer trip to the Azores, the core breeding hub for Cory’s Shearwaters, I encountered impressive foraging flocks and regularly observed birds headed inland towards their nest sites after dark. Hearing their strange, wailing cries as their ghostly silhouettes circled my hotel balcony was a singularly bizarre new experience, one that has greatly increased my appreciation for these wandering wave chasers!
Skimming the surface
#9: Cassin’s Sparrow
This December, New York documented its second record of Cassin’s Sparrow, a full quarter of a century after the first. This unassuming gray-brown bird typically inhabits arid grasslands from Nebraska to Tamaulipas, taking to the skies to deliver its bittersweet song on the wing during the height of monsoon season. At the time of the sparrow’s discovery, Jacqi and I were deep in the trenches of new parenthood, several weeks earlier than we had originally anticipated. The arrival of this unexpected vagrant provided us with the much-needed nudge for our first tentative steps away from the apartment, facilitated by an assist from my ever-supportive family. I was grateful for an excuse to make the trek out to Montauk, and the sparrow itself proved to be staggeringly cooperative, foraging in the open mere feet from assembled observers. What a welcome back into the outside world!
Master class in subtlety
#8: Taiga Bean-Goose
I always appreciate a good wild goose chase! 2025 offered a delicious buffet of goosey goodness, including my first Ross’s Goose in over half a decade, multiple encounters with Pink-footed and Greater White-fronted Geese, and spectacular skeins of migrating Brant. The true stars of the show were the bean-geese, a pair of confusingly similar vagrants from Eurasia that I had never seen prior to this year. 2025 wound up being bookended by beans, starting with a Taiga Bean-Goose that overwintered in the capital region and closing with a Tundra Bean-Goose that settled on Long Island. The former individual represented a number of exciting firsts: first state record, first for the eastern United States, and my first lifer of 2025! My January trip to search for this wayward waterfowl with Brendan and Brent made for an especially memorable kickoff to the year’s birding adventures.
Mr. Bean’s Holiday
#7: Cave Swallow
My Astoria apartment list has been my pride and joy for more than 3 whole years now. I have borne witness to countless incredible sights from my elevated perch atop the roof, and 2025 saw me finally reaching my long-term goal of logging 150 species at this site! Recent highlights include a storm-driven flock of White-rumped Sandpipers, a flyby Lesser Black-backed Gull, and the milestone marker bird itself: a migrating Greater White-fronted Goose that was also seen from Adam’s apartment in Manhattan! The year’s biggest surprise for my yard list, however, was a flyby Cave Swallow that I spied during a pre-work vigil on a brisk November morning. This Southwestern species has a remarkably predictable pattern of vagrancy to the Northeast in late fall, but I still never imagined that my pipe dream of picking one up from home would actually come to pass! You never know what you might see when you keep your eyes to the skies!
Vagrants at home base!
#6: Azores Chaffinch
As the schoolyear came to a close at the end of June, I accompanied my in-laws on a lovely little vacation to the Azores. We spent over a week exploring the islands of São Miguel, Terceira, Faial, and Pico, partaking in various adventurous activities along the way. While the diversity of resident wildlife out in the middle of the Atlantic is unsurprisingly a bit limited, we still documented a number of fascinating critters, including day-flying Azores Noctules and family groups of Sperm Whales. The archipelago is home to a small handful of endemic birds, with the Azores Chaffinch being the most abundant and conspicuous of the bunch. These colorful, charming songbirds proved to be a quintessential component of the Azores experience, and we encountered them in good numbers on each of the islands we visited. Their friendly antics and vibrant songs certainly left a lasting impression on all members of our family.
Classy island variant
#5: Fork-tailed Flycatcher
In the birding community, there are some birds that have a particular mythology associated with them. The Fork-tailed Flycatcher is an iconic poster child for the phenomenon of vagrancy, a long-distance migrant from the Neotropics that could conceivably turn up just about anywhere in the United States and Canada. The species also has a reputation for being frustratingly ephemeral, seldom lingering long when it appears in our neck of the woods. I had failed to connect with this flashy flycatcher on multiple occasions here in New York, so the news that a young Fork-tail had been discovered at Randall’s Island was equal parts thrilling and stressful. Incredibly, the bird wound up sticking around for the better part of a week, delighting countless chasers as it gracefully fluttered among the overgrown grasses of the defunct driving range. This majestic vagrant undoubtedly made for a fantastic finale to the May migration season!
Simply stunning!
#4: Common Cuckoo
For my money, cuckoos are consistently one of the most fascinating cohorts of birds in the world. The ranks of this cosmopolitan family are packed with fantastically bizarre creatures, and the Common Cuckoo is no exception. This celebrated avian icon, which lent its onomatopoeic name to the rest of its kin, has only been recorded on the East Coast a handful of times in history. When I twitched a young bird up in Rhode Island back in November 2020, I described it as a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence. Imagine my shock when the opportunity came around a second time, in my home state, no less! This October, a vagrant cuckoo was discovered by an observant golfer in Riverhead, and I was unsurprisingly unable to resist the thrill of the chase. I made the drive out with Brendan and Ryan, enjoying a spectacular sunrise stakeout with this magnificent megararity. I doubt there were any caterpillars left in the farm fields when the cuckoo was through with them!
Internationally iconic!
#3: California Condor
As a lifelong nature nerd who grew up during the era when the California Condor recovery project was just starting to take off, I have harbored a fascination with this critically endangered species since I was a small child. This interest reached obsessive levels during my family road trip to the Southwest in summer 2005, but for much of my life my field experiences with condors were limited to a few fleeting glimpses or distant views. That all changed in April of this year, when my family embarked on an extended tour of Arizona and Utah to celebrate Andrew and Cali’s wedding. A visit to Navajo Bridge finally furnished me with a breathtaking close encounter of the condor kind, featuring a now-famous youngster by the name of Milagra. Even within the broader context of the dedicated effort that saved these prehistoric giants from the brink of extinction, the incredible saga of this individual bird is an inspiring testament to the value of wildlife conservation. Long may the condors fly free!
Flying free
#2: Azores Bullfinch
This endearing little finch, known to Azoreans as the Priolo, represents a sensational conservation success story. The Azores Bullfinch is a truly exclusive endemic, found only on the island of São Miguel, and even there being restricted to the mountain valleys and native laurisilva forest of the island’s eastern end. The bird was very nearly lost due to habitat destruction, and indeed it was believed extinct for several decades in the early 20th century, before it was even fully recognized as its own distinct species! An intensive preservation project aimed at restoring laurel forests rescued the bullfinches in the nick of time, and in recent years they have been delisted from critically endangered to merely vulnerable. Jacqi and I joined a morning expedition with local expert Gerby to seek an audience with these pudgy passerines, and we enjoyed prolonged close views of several pairs as they foraged along the shoulder of a mountain road. I am beyond grateful that our summer visit to this Atlantic archipelago afforded us the opportunity to meet its most iconic resident species!
Symbol of São Miguel
#1: Arctic Warbler
I have been fortunate over the course of my birding career to cross paths with an impressive lineup of astonishing rarities in my home state, but the subtle little songbird that visited Randall’s Island on a fateful September morning may well be the most unexpected, far-flung vagrant that I have observed in New York to date. Getting to be a part of such a monumental discovery at my own beloved patch with a fantastic crew of friends was an honor and a privilege of the highest order. When I saw that distinctively patterned face pop out of the foliage and heard Ryan’s legendary, profanity-punctuated callout of a genus name that had never before been documented in this corner of the world, it made for an instant core memory! What followed was a thrilling, all-hands-on-deck community documentation effort, with hundreds of observers descending on the scene to help collect photos and audio in the hopes of resolving the specifics of this notoriously fraught identification challenge. We are incredibly fortunate that this lost leaf warbler was cooperative enough for us to satisfactorily confirm its identity, representing a first not only for the state but for the entire eastern portion of the continent! Dmitriy loves to claim that “the best Randall’s bird is yet to happen,” but I doubt anyone would be too upset if this little guy proved to be the definitive peak of the Island’s power! The view looks pretty sweet from up here!
Mind-blowing megararity! (Photo Credit: Ryan Zucker)
In retrospect, 2025 certainly followed the established trend of recent years by delivering a suite of unforgettable birding experiences alongside a number of major changes in my personal life. The only thing I know for certain about 2026 is that it will undoubtedly bring its own share of exciting developments and unexpected surprises. The beauty of birding is that it remains a constant no matter where life leads, which is a welcome comfort as I embark on the thrilling new adventure of fatherhood. Who knows: perhaps some of next year’s Top 10 birds will involve species shared with my son, highlights from trips with my loved ones, or yard birds encountered at a brand-new address! I am eager to see what lies ahead in the coming 12 months, and I wish all of my family, friends, and dearest gentle readers a sensationally successful 2026! Happy holidays to all!