New York City has a new set of feathered celebrities. A family of barn owls has moved into a rooftop water tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side, and experts say nothing like it has been recorded on the island before.
The owls are living in a water tower atop a building on West 75th Street near Central Park West, the Associated Press reported. Birder David Barrett, who runs the popular Manhattan Bird Alert account, has seen at least one adult and five fledglings, and watched an adult fly rodents back to the tower. Two adults are believed to be nesting there, and some photographers say they've counted six young.
"Totally Shocking"
Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, called the nest totally shocking and told the AP there is no recorded barn owl nest in Manhattan. Barrett described a family breeding in the borough for the first time on record as special news.
According to the city Parks Department, barn owl sightings in city parks are very rare. New York sits at the northern edge of the species' range, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation says the barn owl population has declined at an alarming rate.
Screams in the Night
Residents knew something was up long before anyone spotted the birds. Neighbors had been hearing screeching since early September. One resident, Thomas Obersteiner, said it sounded like someone being hurt, and his family more than once rushed to check on their children. Farnsworth explained that the eerie screech is simply how barn owls communicate.
Resident Elisabeth Williams and her husband first saw a single owl on a windowsill, then several more at the water tower, and shared the news with a local outlet on Oct. 6.
A New Nightly Show
Now photographers and onlookers gather on the street every evening, especially around dusk. Obersteiner has opened his roof deck to visitors; as many as 20 people have crowded onto it in a single night. He told the AP he simply can't say no to people that excited.
The excitement echoes the city's love for past bird stars like Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped the Central Park Zoo in 2023, and Pale Male, the red-tailed hawk who nested on Fifth Avenue for about three decades. One visitor voiced a familiar worry: that the owls might eat rats poisoned with rodenticide.
Jessica Wilson, executive director of NYC Bird Alliance, summed up the appeal: owls are secretive and magical, and seeing them is a real thrill.