Last night, a friend who lives on 11th Street and Second Avenue told me she keeps on getting woken up in the middle of the night by a bird that mimics the sound of a car alarm. I did not believe her, but it turns out her account of the strange urban bird call is actually a northern mocking bird adapting to New York City life, said Haley Main, the environmental educator of the Audobon Society’s "For the Birds!" program. The birds also mimic cellular phone rings, and they are “all over” the city.

This week brought a flock of notable stories of wildlife adapting and, sometimes, colliding with development here.  read more »