Mandarin Duck Excites New Yorkers

01It is not easy to excite New Yorkers.

02This is one reason why actors and other famous people move to the city.

03They can live quieter lives and escape the paparazzi photographers who would follow them in Hollywood.

04But New York has a new media star, and this star is not living so quietly.

05The star is a colorful mandarin duck.

06The bird first appeared this month in a small body of water in Manhattan's Central Park.

07Large crowds have gathered to see the duck.

08Reporters have been following its every move.

09The media attention on the duck has earned the name Quackarazzi.

10A word combination of paparazzi and the sound a duck makes.

11The duck has chosen to live in a costly part of New York, just off Fifth Avenue, near the historic Plaza Hotel.

12There, hundreds of people turn up every day, hoping to see the bird show off its extremely colorful feathers.

13Many people like the duck because its colors are like sunsets, says New Yorker Joe Amato.

14He comes to the park nearly every day with his camera equipment.

15Bird lovers have been keeping record of the bird's daily life through social media postings and videos.

16People have noted how effortlessly the duck moves through the water.

17Newspaper writers have reported on its clashes with the common New York ducks.

18This week, New York's newest celebrity seemed to enjoy its fame, showing off its wings while members of the Quackarazzi pushed each other to get a closer look.

19Lisa Beckman traveled over two hours from her home in New Jersey to see the duck.

20She says her 90-year-old mother has been talking all about the duck since its first appearance.

21I've got to see this duck, Beckman told her mother.

22She plans to take pictures and give them to her mother.

23Bird expert Paul Sweet heads a large collection of bird species at the New York-based American Museum of Natural History.

24He says there is nothing special about a mandarin duck in Central Park.

25Central Park Zoo has its own mandarin duck, he says.

26These ducks are often imported to the United States from Asia for use on private property.

27Sometimes they escape, he said.

28Sweet said he believes this duck is an escapee.

29If it were wild, he added, traditional bird watchers, often called birders, would be very excited.

30And they are not.

31A lot of non-birders tend to see colorful birds as more beautiful, Sweet said.

32But to me, it's no more beautiful than, say, a sparrow.

33In this case, though, common New Yorkers get to decide what is beautiful.

34And they have clearly chosen this mandarin duck.

35I'm Susan Shand.

36I'm Susan Shand.

37I'm Susan Shand.

38I'm Susan Shand.

39I'm Susan Shand.