Sunset Park Birds: My Eureka Moment with a Brown Thrasher

One of the foundational joys of birding is that you never know what birds you are going to see; there could be nothing of note, or you could be surprised by something unexpected and/or magical. When I started out, however, I did not have this perspective, but it is exactly from my experiences birding in Sunset Park that I have come to understand this to be true. Initially, I didn’t even necessarily think I’d find any warblers in the park during migration (how could there be any in such a small, inconsequential park?!), but since then I’ve seen 27 species of warbler, plus so much more.

In my time birding Sunset Park, I’ve had a number of little epiphanies, moments when I’ve had to shift and expand my expectations of what birds I might realistically see there. These moments all involve an internal monologue that goes something like this: Oh my God, what’s that bird? It couldn’t possibly be a [insert name of species I haven’t seen in the park before], could it? It is! Wow, what a magical place Sunset Park is! I never knew a [species name] could ever show up here. I guess I need to start looking even more carefully for/at birds when I’m here!

Right now, as winter seems like it’s finally and definitively transitioning into spring, it’s a good time for me to reconnect with the idea that any bird is possible. And I’m brought back to a formative moment in my first spring birding in Sunset Park, in April 2022, when I had an encounter with a Brown Thrasher that first opened my mind to the reality that my local park had more species of birds than I had first thought. Including birds like the Brown Thrasher, which are expected in larger green spaces, but are furtive and often hard to see. I was walking home through the park late one afternoon and looked toward the corner where the rec center meets the swimming pool fence. It’s a secluded spot with shrubs and trees and leaf litter, so it can be a productive spot to find a range of species. When I glanced over there, what I initially saw was just… movement. In the fading light, it was a mere impression of something, a russet creature in a sea of leaves tossing them here and there as it dug around for bugs. Whatever the creature was, it was foraging with great gusto, a real force of nature.

When I got my binoculars on it, the creature in question turned out to be a Brown Thrasher, which basically looks like a supersized thrush with a large curved bill — and an attitude problem. Its calls are similar to that of a Northern Mockingbird (both are mimids), and though it lacks the vocal versatility (and annoying persistence) of a mockingbird, the two species definitely share similar energies. When I saw the thrasher, and realized what it was, I was deeply excited. First, because I had never seen a Brown Thrasher before in Sunset Park, and second, because the bird was there earlier than its expected arrival as a migrant, so it flagged as “Rare” on eBird, the citizen-science website where I log and document my bird sightings. I proceeded to document its presence with great seriousness, treating this sighting as if it were a yeti or a sasquatch, and my photographic evidence of it would lead to a major scientific breakthrough.

The true breakthrough for me, though, was that from that point on, I brought a greater rigor and sense of possibility to my birding in the park. From keeping track of the Brown Thrasher (and, later, its mate), I also gained an even deeper love for the species. The photo above is from April 2025, when once again thrashers showed up as a symbol of both spring and the boundless possibilities of what birds might be right around the corner.

Follow this link to join the Sunset Park Birds WhatsApp group, where you can follow news about the arrival of Brown Thrashers and much more. Happy birding!