Central Park mandarin duck

[1][2] His appearance was disseminated by another birder, David Barrett, who operates the Twitter account Manhattan Bird Alert and was described as the duck's "kingmaker" and "de-facto PR spokesman".

[16] Whenever the duck was not seen for a period of days or when he was seen somewhere other than Central Park, it received media coverage, such as when it showed up in Brooklyn or Edgewater, New Jersey.

[21] Paul Sweet, Collection Manager in the Department of Ornithology at the American Museum of Natural History, criticized the enthusiasm for the duck.

Though he credited the phenomenon with raising interest in birding, he pointed out the dangers that exotic species pose to native species in general and compared the experience of seeing an escaped duck in Central Park to seeing a bird in a zoo: "In British birder parlance, this is a 'plastic' duck, an escaped pet, one that can be bought online.

"[22][23] Even within city limits, there are several other Mandarin ducks at zoos—at the majority of zoos nationwide, as well—according to AMNY; however, those captive birds never seemed to attract this level of public or media attention.

[3][27] Gothamist's Jen Carlson likened its public attention to a cult, with its crowd of onlookers by the Central Park Pond "[taking] on an apocalyptic circus vibe on weekends.

"[1] In other articles, she wrote about some of the reasons he may have become so popular, making a comparison to the role of ducks in The Catcher in the Rye, symbolizing "all we have that is good anymore.

[2] The Central Park duck's origin is unknown, but New York is too far from his natural territories for him to have simply gotten lost during migration, which accounts for some other rare sightings.

Midler was inspired to write a story about the effect the duck was having on people, causing them to look up from their cell phone screens to look at natural beauty.