New York’s beloved owl, Flaco, dies after apparently crashing into building
- Fans and birders are in mourning for the Manhattan celebrity, who became famous a year ago after a dramatic escape from Central Park Zoo
- Visitors are laying flowers and sharing memories at a temporary memorial at the owl’s favourite oak tree in the park
Tributes poured in Saturday for Flaco, the beloved Eurasian eagle-owl that became a feel-good New York story after escaping its Central Park Zoo enclosure and flying free around Manhattan.
Flaco was found dead on a New York pavement on Friday night after apparently flying into a building. It was a heartbreaking end for the birders who documented the owl’s daily movements and the legions of admirers who eagerly followed along.
“Everybody feels the same, they’re devastated,” said Nicole Blair, a New York City artist who devoted much of her feed on the X platform to photos and memes featuring the celebrity owl with checkerboard black and brown feathers and round sunset-hued eyes.
Staff from the Wild Bird Fund, a wildlife rehabilitation centre, declared Flaco dead shortly after the collision. A necropsy was expected on Saturday.
The normally vocal owl whose hours of hooting became a nightly song in the Upper West Side had been quieter in the days before his death, said David Barrett, who runs the Manhattan Bird Alert account on X and tracked reports of the owl’s activities.