Photo: Julie Larsen Maher
The Wildlife Conservation society has announced in a statement that Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl who captivated New Yorkers after escaping from the Central Park Zoo in February 2023, has died after colliding with a building on West 89th St. The 13-year-old bird has been transported to the Bronx Zoo for an animal autopsy.
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Flaco was able to escape the Central Park Zoo after a vandal cut the stainless steel mesh that was housing the bird. Since his escape, Flaco had been spotted all over Manhattan but recent sightings were concentrated in Central Park and on the Upper West Side roughly between 70th and 90th streets.
“The vandal who damaged Flaco’s exhibit jeopardized the safety of the bird and is ultimately responsible for his death,” said the Wildlife Conservation Society. “We are still hopeful that the NYPD, which is investigating the vandalism, will ultimately make an arrest.”
According to the statement, residents of the building noticed the bird and reported it to the Wild Bird Fund, which responded quickly and reported the bird dead.
Flaco’s movements over the last year have been well documented by major news organizations, bird experts and regular citizens of Manhattan. The NY Post reported in December that Flaco was straying from the park and spending more time atop buildings on the Upper West Side.
“This is his new behavior now, what we’re seeing,” an UWS resident and professor told the Post. “He’s no longer roosting in the park, or even trees as far as we know. He’s using human-made structures: air conditioners, window ledges and fire escapes, particularly ones on the inside of buildings.”
Concerns about Flaco’s ability to survive outside the zoo were raised after his escape, with experts citing rodenticide and other, bigger birds as potential risks.
“Our staff monitored him throughout the year and were prepared to recover him if he showed any sign of difficulty or distress,” the Wildlife Conservation Society said.
The statement added that more information would be publicly provided following the autopsy results and further testing.
If he flew into a building, he was almost certainly sick in some way, likely rat poison.
RIP Flaco. My heart is broken. Please remember that reflective glass and un-shielded non-essential lighting are killers. A tragic amount of birds collide with misleading reflections on windows and doors and get tired and confused by certain types of lighting, especially in cloudy and rainy weather. Please do all you can to prevent bird collisions and help the hundreds of bird species that migrate through NYC in the spring and fall. Thanks to the Wild Bird Fund at 565 Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10024 for all their service in rehabilitating birds and wildlife.
…or he saw a cat or small dog perched near a window and assumed he could swoop in and grab it. Since many corners of modern buildings also tend to have super-sized, floor-to-ceiling windows that meet at right angles, he might have thought he could fly through one of those corners if the light at the time made the glass look transparent. I don’t know all of 89th Street well enough to visualize all its buildings but there are a few possibilities beyond rat poison. Tall plants behind a window also give the impression to birds that there’s nothing between them and the plants so, again, in their minds it’s a safe area to fly around just as if they were in a park or forest. Whatever was the reason, it’s still a premature and sad end to Flaco’s life caused by wanton vandalism and animal cruelty of the highest order.
What will it take to put a stop to all the super-talls with reflective glass? They all look alike and are ugly, and are a huge danger to wildlife. We need stronger architectural review boards in NYC.
Well at least Flacco was doing what it loved.
Along with so many other New Yorkers, I remain heartbroken at Flaco the Owl’s passing. True, if not for the fact that someone released Flaco by vandalizing his enclosure, Flaco would not have had a year of freedom. Thousands of admirers would not have had the opportunity to rejoice in seeing him, to learn from him, and to cheer for him, sincerely hoping that he would have a safe and happy existence in our city. It’s also true that Flaco received much more recognition flying around the city than he was getting while sitting in his lonely cage at the zoo. But for anyone who wants to give a medal to the vandal who cut open this magnificent bird’s cage, I’d say, not so fast. As far as I know, this person did not leave any note describing his motives. Far from being some kind of folk hero, it’s entirely possible that he was just a punk, copycatting recent acts of vandalism at various other zoos. Maybe he just wanted to do something to “give the finger” to authority. Maybe, after sneaking into the zoo, he found that Flaco’s enclosure was just the easiest one to vandalize. Thus, we can’t assume that his actions were compassionate or idealistic. We don’t know what kind of hole that this person cut in Flaco’s enclosure. Did he leave sharp wires surrounding this “escape hatch”? Did he think about the possibility that Flaco could have scraped himself, and could have died from bleeding and infection? We don’t know if this person really gave a flying feather about Flaco or not.