Visitors flock to see mandarin duck in Head of the Harbor

An escaped bird uncommon to New York has been seen in a private pond in Head of the Harbor, drawing crowds of people — and prompting village officials to step up traffic control and threaten arrests for those who park illegally and wander near the pond.

The bird, a mandarin duck, has been spotted in the small pond near the corner of Rhododendron Drive and Saddle Road. Since it was first seen about three weeks ago, the duck has drawn a crowd of hundreds of people every day, according to Head of the Harbor Police Chief Charles Lohmann.

The bird is thought to have escaped from a private owner. It appears to have a band on its leg, according to Lohmann, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation informed him that it was considered to be an invasive species.

The chief said the village has seen a pronounced increase of visitors because of the duck: roughly 1,500 people over the last week. That has resulted in more illegal parking along roads near the pond — parking on village roads is prohibited — and neighbors have complained their lawns are being trampled.

“I’ve got people from as far away as Illinois just to be able to take a photograph of this duck … it’s become this attraction to the point where it’s become a real nuisance in the village,” Lohmann said.

Bolstered enforcement

Traffic on local roads already has been problematic for more than a year, Lohmann said, since a section of Harbor Road was washed away in a storm in August 2024 and has yet to be repaired. The added traffic from bird-watchers has worsened the situation, he said. 

So, Lohmann said, village police have stepped up enforcement, and his department has been in contact with DEC and people from local wildlife groups who are coordinating with wildlife rescue experts to try and retrieve the bird.

The duck has still not been caught as of Tuesday, and it risks being hunted if it flies off protected land such as the pond, Lohmann said.

In the meantime, Lohmann reiterated that any visitors who park illegally on village roads near the pond or walk onto private property to see the bird will be charged with trespassing and face arrest.

Colorful, not rare

The mandarin duck is a colorful waterbird, with a red-tipped beak and green, brown and yellow feathers. It nests in trees often high above water and is roughly 16 inches long with a 26- to 30-inch wingspan. It is indigenous to China, Japan, the Korean Peninsula and parts of Russia, according to the United Kingdom-based wildlife organization The Wildlife Trusts.

The bird also can be found in some zoos, according to Jennifer Wilson-Pines, president of the North Shore Audubon Society.

Wilson-Pines said there have been birds even more rare than the duck spotted on Long Island recently. They include a Eurasian wigeon in Setauket that should have been migrating to Africa; a Cassin’s sparrow in Montauk, which was the first recorded sighting of that bird in New York; and a trifecta of geese — a tundra bean goose, Ross’s goose and a greater white-fronted goose — spotted in Glen Cove.

For a few days in October, a common cuckoo — rarely if ever seen on Long Island — drew bird-watching crowds to Riverhead, Newsday reported last month. 

“Genuinely rare birds are birds that are severely off course, like maybe getting caught up in a storm,” Wilson-Pines said.

As for the mandarin duck, Wilson-Pines said seasoned bird-watchers don’t consider it a rare bird, and she believes the crowds that have been gathering at Head of the Harbor to spot it tend to be photographers “who may not know anything about the birds they’re taking pictures of, but they like the pretty ones.”