Hard to say what criteria they used. Maybe - "I can only think of 12 sites, and here are my favorite 10." (grin)
I just got a copy of a book: The Art of Bird Photography" by Arthur Morris. He lists many sites (none in NY), and one is in NJ: Barnegat Inlet lighthouse and jetty. Birds there - purple sandpiper, ruddy turnstone, harlequin duck, Ipswich sparrow, red-throated and common loons, oldsquaw and red-breasted merganser. I've not been there myself.