The bunting has flown the coop.
Brooklyn’s favorite bird has not been seen in the borough for about a month, according to the Prospect Park Alliance and area birders — and locals have been missing the multi-colored male Painted Bunting that enchanted crowds looking for the “unicorn”-like bird.
A spokeswoman for the parks group said the male bird — which before November, hadn't been seen in Brooklyn since 1927 — hasn’t been spotted in the park in recent weeks and “likely continued towards his usual winter ground as the weather cooled.”
Rob Bate, president of the Brooklyn Bird Club, confirmed the departure.
“The Painted Bunting was last seen on January 3. A cold front was moving in and we assume the bird took off for the south,” he said in an email.
For weeks afterward, Brooklynites wondered about the feathered friend’s fate and reminisced about his stay in the park.
After 36 days of brightening a normally grey season, our Brooklyn Painted Bunting has been MIA for 2 days. Thanks for the memories :'(
— Rob Jett (@thecitybirder) January 5, 2016
We have Painted Bunting Withdrawal … https://t.co/x6VjjNQ4jH
— Junko Suzuki (@junconyc) January 6, 2016
I hope that Painted Bunting in Brooklyn is okay...
— Miz Hepburn (@Fancy_Frances) January 13, 2016
During January’s historic blizzard, one resident shared concerns about the Painted Bunting surviving the storm.
Is anyone else wondering about and worried about the painted bunting of Prospect Park today in this snow storm?
— Sharon Oser (@sharonoser) January 23, 2016
Another male Painted Bunting — distinctive with its brightly colored feathers — was seen in Stamford, C.T., last week, but, alas, “it is not … likely the same” bird seen in Prospect Park, according to a report in The Stamford Times.
Painted Buntings are a type of cardinal usually seen in the warmer southern states. But after the bird showed up in Brooklyn in late November (and then stuck around for a couple of weeks), bird experts predicted he would stay in the city all winter amid warmer-than-usual temperatures.
Then in early December, the bunting survived a brush with a local cat who hunted him near his home at the Lakeside Skating Rink; the kitty was later trapped and removed by Prospect Park Alliance staff.
The bunting made it to the New Year in the Big Apple, surviving a cold snap that came after the holidays.
But soon after that, he disappeared from the park, leaving a final farewell, appropriately, in a tweet.
PEACE OUT YA'LL! Apparently it gets COLD in Brooklyn! I be back! You got great noms! Maybe I bring friends! https://t.co/QDSLuPc3Xm
— Brooklyn Bunting (@ProspectBunting) January 6, 2016
