Park Rangers are on the search for a female Common Merganser that has been in Central Park since at least mid-February and has plastic in its beak and around its neck.
"I saw the duck while I was leading a bird walk in Central Park," birder Sandra Critelli told Gothamist on Tuesday morning. Critelli took photos of the duck and posted them to Twitter on Sunday. She said "[it] clearly looked in trouble with that plastic ring around its lower beak and neck." While the duck was active, there was a clear problem, as it could not close its beak or eat. "Eventually she will die because of a little plastic ring," Critelli said, "and that is really sad."
On Sunday, Critelli says she went with a member of the Wild Bird Fund to try to rescue the duck, but they had no success. Urban Park Rangers attempted the same on Monday, taking a kayak out on the lake where she had been spotted, but they couldn't find the duck.
"The Urban Park Rangers have been unable to locate the bird, but they are continuing to monitor the area," NYC Parks press officer Megan Moriarty told Gothamist. She added that their goal "is to rescue the bird, remove the plastic, and transport the animal to the Wild Bird Fund so they can assess its overall health."
David Barrett of the Manhattan Bird Alert Twitter account told us that this Common Merganser has been in Central Park since at least February 19th (when a sighting was reported to the eBird.org site), meaning it has likely not eaten since before then.
The Common Merganser is rare for the borough of Manhattan, Barrett says, though "Brooklyn and Queens have had one to eight Common Mergansers resident throughout the current winter... [as they] occur more commonly, usually only in small numbers, in neighboring boroughs."
The Parks Department is also asking "all birding New Yorkers to keep an eye out for our feathered friend. If you spot the bird, please contact the NYC Parks Urban Park Rangers directly at 212-360-2774 or call 311 after 5 p.m."
And Critelli leaves this message for everyone: "Please cut plastic rings [and rubber bands] before discarding them. This simple action will make a difference."
