“I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound”

Many people in Manhattan visit Central Park in the spring. David Letterman, host of the New York city-based late-night television talk show Late Show with David Letterman,  said in March 2001:
   
“Today is the first day of spring! I was out walking around today and in Central Park I saw a robin redbreast. Then I looked closer, and it was just a sparrow with an exit wound.”
   
Letterman’s New York City jokes often referenced New York’s reputation in the 1960s and 1970s, when crime rates were high.
   
   
Wikipedia: Late Show with Stephen Colbert
Late Show with David Letterman is an American late-night talk show hosted by David Letterman on CBS, the first iteration of the Late Show franchise. The show debuted on August 30, 1993, and was produced by Letterman’s production company, Worldwide Pants, and CBS Television Studios. The show’s music director and leader of the house band, the CBS Orchestra, was Paul Shaffer. (...) The show was then succeeded by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015.
     
23 March 2001, The Spectator (Hamilton, ON), “The Zinger File:,” pg. D7:
Today is the first day of spring! I was out walking around today and in Central Park I saw a robin redbreast. Then I looked closer, and it was just a sparrow with an exit wound.
David Letterman, Late Show
   
Twitter
nickJbarrett
@nickJbarrett
“I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park today, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.” David Letterman sparrow
5:44 PM - 14 Mar 2010
   
Twitter
Ivy Picklebottom
@IvyPicklebottom
Thought I saw a Robin Redbreast in my backyard this morning but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.
2:46 AM - 21 May 2010
   
Twitter
Rick Sadecky
@timeclockman
#quote I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park today, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.  David Letterman
2:20 AM - 13 Dec 2010
       
issuu
W42ST Issue 36 - the Ho-ho-holidays issue 
Published on Nov 21, 2017
LAST WORD
“I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park today, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.”
David Letterman
 
Twitter
Bob Kostic
@causticbob
My wife looked out the window and asked me, “Darling, is that a robin red-breast ?”
“No,” I replied, “It’s a sparrow with an exit wound.”
8:09 AM - 5 Jan 2019
 
Women.com
It’s Time to Laugh Thanks to These Hilarious David Letterman Quotes
Sophie Matthews
Apr 12, 2019
(...)
“I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park today, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.”
 
Reader’s Digest
12 of the Best David Letterman One-Liners of the Last 33 Years
Brandon Specktor
(...)
I saw a robin redbreast in Central Park today, but it turned out to be a sparrow with an exit wound.
DAVID LETTERMAN