David Barrett was at the gym on Thursday night when the first reports began to trickle in: there was an owl on the sidewalk of 5th Avenue, just south of Central Park.
A longtime resident of Manhattan’s Upper East Side, and an avid birder since 2010, Barrett, 59, is used to receiving breaking news tips about birds. As the proprietor of the popular Twitter account Manhattan Bird Alert, he receives and transmits a steady stream of information about bird sightings, as well as photos and videos taken by a network of contributors around the city.
So it wasn’t until Barrett saw a photo of the owl in question later that evening that he realized this was no typical urban wildlife encounter. “I said: ‘That’s a Eurasian eagle owl,’” Barrett told the Guardian. “It immediately occurred to me that that’s incredible. They’re not native to the US, so how could we have one here?”
The eagle owl, one of the largest species of owls in the world, had not crossed the Atlantic to check out the latest fashions at Bergdorf Goodman, though he was spotted “window shopping” at the high-end department store that evening. Instead, Flaco, as he is known, had escaped after a suspected vandal used a tool to cut the stainless steel mesh of his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo, where the raptor has lived since 2010.
A week later, the investigation into Flaco’s escape remains ongoing, according to the New York police department, and Flaco himself remains at large, though he is by no means missing.
A short clip of Flaco, the @centralparkzoo’s escaped Eurasian eagle owl, window shopping outside @Bergdorfs last night. Flaco flew early this morning into Central Park, where he is being monitored by zoo staff and rangers.#birds #birdwatching #wildlife #nature #birdcpp pic.twitter.com/G8zvMugXK8
— David Lei (@davidlei) February 3, 2023
Alongside staff from the zoo, dedicated birders from around the city have kept eyes on Flaco as he’s traveled around a small corner of Manhattan, resisting efforts to recapture him but never straying too far from home.
The zoo has not commented on its rescue efforts beyond a statement released on Friday, which noted that its “focus and effort at this time is on the safe recovery of the owl”. But Barrett is able to provide a fairly detailed itinerary of his whereabouts since the great escape, based on his own observations (he’s gone out to photograph the bird about twice a day each day since Friday) and those of his fellow birders.
“We’re not dealing with a dowdy bird here,” said Barrett. “This is a bird that is dramatically patterned, colorful and large. It’s drawing a lot of people.”
Flaco “hung out near Bergdorf’s” on Thursday evening, before returning to Central Park and passing the weekend in the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, Barrett said. It spent Monday and Tuesday resting in trees on the western edge of the zoo, though it was not persuaded to re-enter its enclosure. As of Wednesday morning, it was back in Hallett.
While the opportunity to observe one of the world’s largest owl species in the wild has drawn small crowds of bird watchers to the park, Flaco’s fans are concerned about his prospects for survival in the wild.
Flaco, the @centralparkzoo’s Eurasian eagle-owl, is so handsome. Last night, he flew to the south end of Literary Walk, where he swooped at a rat unsuccessfully. Then he returned to the zoo’s edge. This long exposure was faintly lit by street lights. #birds #birdwatching #birdcpp pic.twitter.com/tfNjfHNwsT
— David Lei (@davidlei) February 7, 2023
“After 12 years of living in captivity in the zoo, he would lose his hunting skills if he ever had them,” said Barrett. “He did swoop at a rat two nights ago, but effective hunting requires great skill and practice.”
Tate Mason, the director of the World Center for Birds of Prey, concurred.
“It will likely be recaptured, and it will likely not survive on its own in the wild,” Mason said. “An imprinted bird” – meaning a bird exposed to humans from hatching and raised in captivity – “looks to humans for food, and if that’s what the bird is used to, it will come down for food at some point.”
While the zoo has declined to comment on how it hopes to recapture the bird, Mason said there were many options, including nets or tranquilizing darts.
Barrett compared the enthusiasm over Flaco to the “hot” Mandarin duck that became a viral sensation when it was spotted in Central Park in 2018. The origins of that duck, which is native to China and Japan, remain mysterious; it has not been seen since March 2019.
“People wanted to see it even though the Central Park Zoo had another mandarin duck all along,” Barrett said. “People are coming to see [Flaco] because unless they travel to Europe or Asia, they’re never going to see this species flying around a natural environment,” Barrett said. “That’s kind of a big thing.”