I created Queens and L.I. Bird Alert in January 2018 and continue to manage it to provide Queens and Long Island birders with a convenient way to share real-time birding information and birding photography and videography.

All posts are publicly-viewable and searchable: https://twitter.com/BirdQueens

How it works

Users follow the Twitter account @BirdQueens, which I manage. I review information and submissions from a variety of sources to compose my own tweets and to choose what to retweet.

Directions

To receive the alerts, follow @BirdQueens and turn on mobile notifications for this account on the Twitter app. If this is all you want, you’re done.

To contribute alerts, photos, or videos, you can tweet @BirdQueens or with a mention, and this usually will get our attention eventually. Introducing yourself with a direct message to us is a good way to start, as Twitter reliably shows these messages, and then we can follow your account. If you tweet mostly birding stuff relevant to us, let us know and we can set notifications on your account and this will save you from having to mention us each time.

Guidelines for Alert Content

Queens and L.I. Bird Alerts can contain any information you believe to be of interest to local birders, but largely they should be any excellent birding or wildlife photo taken in our coverage area OR real-time reports of rare, uncommon, or otherwise notable wild birds in Queens or Long Island.

With all alerts remember to give as exact a location as needed (for someone else to find the bird), and feel free to attach a pinned Google Maps image if it helps. Often attaching a photo of the area, the tree, or the bird can be helpful, too. We cover three New York counties: Queens, Nassau, and Suffolk, so it helps to state the county to which your report refers.

Be sure to have alerts enabled for replies and direct messages, as the site moderator (that’s me) may ask you to clarify location or ID.

Examples

• In Queens, TUNDRA SWAN on the north side of East Pond, Jamaica Bay WR.
• THICK-BILLED MURRE swimming near shore by Jones Beach Coast Guard Station in Nassau County.
• Three BROWN PELICANS on the sandbar at Cupsogue Beach County Park in Suffolk, County.