c. Daisy Lane Paul

Painted Bunting Spotted in Prospect Park

December 2, 2015

Winter may be on the horizon, but that’s not stopping one particularly colorful character from making a stopover in Prospect Park, a National Audubon-designated Important Bird Area. The now-famous male painted bunting was spotted near the LeFrak Center at Lakeside this week, and local media outlets and bird-lovers alike have converged to catch a glimpse. And with good reason: while less-colorful female painted buntings have been spotted in the area as recently as 2011, this is the first recorded sighting of a male painted bunting in Brooklyn in recent memory.

The multi-colored member of the cardinal family is likely bound for Florida or Central America for the winter, but was drawn to this area of the Park due to an abundance of shelter and seeds to forage and eat. As part of the creation of Lakeside, one of the Park’s newest attractions and the most ambitious restoration project in the history of the Park, the Prospect Park Alliance transformed a 300-spot parking lot into an additional three acres of green space and wildlife habitat – a perfect respite for migrating bird species like the painted bunting. Learn more about the Alliance’s  environmental preservation work and about birdwatching activities in the Park.