By Carla Zanoni
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
INWOOD — A Mandarin duck spotted in the salt marsh in Inwood Hill Park caused ripples of interest in the neighborhood Monday afternoon.
Erin Costello, an Inwood resident, photographed the brilliantly colored bird while walking through the park.
"I thought he was a decoy at first, cool tail feathers,’ she tweeted.
A spokesman for the Audubon Society said the bird was likely a Mandarin duck similar to the one spotted in February at the 79th Street Boat Basin on the Upper West Side. A sighting of possibly the same bird was also chronicled in New Jersey at around the same time on the Meadowlands Nature Blog.
"Because Mandarin Ducks are quite beautiful they are kept by waterfowl enthusiast," an Audubon representative said. "Given natural range is quite far from here, in all likelihood it is escaped from someone’s private collection."
Mandarin ducks are natives of China and Japan, but have recently been found in Russia as well, far from the shores of Manhattan.
Park Ranger Sgt. Rakem Taylor has worked at the Inwood Hill Nature Center for nearly five years, and although he has seen his share of unusual animals, including a seal last year, he had never before seen a duck of this kind in the salt marsh.
"Occasionally we get very extravagant things up here," he said, "something special that makes the other boroughs jealous."
Taylor said he was not concerned about the duck’s viability, despite the distance from its natural habitat. He explained that all ducks are built in similar ways regardless of their natural locale.
"With this community’s tendency to care for our wildlife, it should be fine," he said. "And if something does happen, it’s right outside of our window."
