Thanks for Nothing, New York City

Hi friends.  I have a new post up on Slate, where I blame New York City for all the environmental ills of the nation.  Good times.

As a Birdist Bonus, I got to thinking about other famous invasive introduction sites.  Below is a map (click here if the points aren't showing up) showing, to the extent I could figure out, the spots around the country where exotic species were first introduced.  If you've got additions or suggestions, please let me know!

Where Have New ABA Birds Been Found?

Below is a map of the locations of birds added to the ABA checklist since 2005.  I expected everything to focused on Arizona and Attu, but there's actually a pretty good distribution around the borders of the country.

Couple notes:

• I only included new species, not splits (ie Pacific Wren)
• These are birds that were added to the ABA list since 2005, but may have been sighted much earlier.
• The list doesn't include birds that have been seen recently but aren't yet on the list officially, like the Rufous-necked Wood-Rail.

The tags are color-coded by the year they were sighted (not added to the checklist):

• pre-1990 - black
• 1990-2001 - gray
• 2002 - turquoise
• 2003 - none
• 2004 - green
• 2005 - orange
• 2006 - brown
• 2007 - purple
• 2008 - blue
• 2009 - pink
• 2010 - yellow
• 2011 - red 

Click here to visit the interactive map. 

(I can't embed it)