This evening Flaco appeared on two buildings briefly hooting from each, before I lost track of him. He appeared first on 241 Central Park West, at the corner of 84th and Central Park West and then he moved to 5 West 86th Street.

I didn’t catch him leaving 5 West 86th Street, so I don’t know if he left to explore the Upper West Side or go to Central Park to hunt. A few Flaco followers looked for him both inside and outside the park without sucess.

I didn’t have a chance to set up my camera but did get one low resolution shot with him one 241 Central Park West.

Flaco has had quite the adventure since I last saw him on the Lower East Side on November 9th. He has been seen in a variety of places, the East Village, on a few buildings on Fifth Avenue, back in two familiar roosts in Central Park, and then roosting in at least three locations on the Upper West Side in the ’80s. (I was away on vacation, so I missed seeing any of this.)

After he left Central Park, social media had some crazy reasons for why he left Central Park after two days. The most incredulous was someone defending their posting of his roost locations, by claiming that people don’t bother Flaco, and he must have moved because of American Crows and Hawks. While Flaco most likely didn’t leave Central Park because of people watching him, he does get annoyed by some observers and the standard owl etiquette rules should be honored. The world is full of bad actors, and it makes sense to not advertise the location of a sleeping owl.

Flaco has also held his ground with crows and hawks. I doubt he ever switched roosts because of them. It was suggested that he left his roosts at the Tennis Courts, because of a hawk. But, you could easily make the case that his temporary use of trees north of the Tennis Courts was a way of engaging a Red-tailed Hawk, which he did push away. And after he was successful, he returned to his favorite American Elm.

The reasons Flaco is now exploring Manhattan aren’t entirely clear. He’s a feral bird on the wrong continent, so this is unchartered territory. He certainly wasn’t expected to say in Central Park forever and I’m surprised he didn’t do more exploring earlier in the year.

He has discovered at least two things in the last month. One is that he can hoot from tall buildings and secondly that he can roost in quiet gardens, backyards and at the rear of buildings.

Dedicated Flaco watchers have considered a number of possibilities for why Flaco chose to move in November.

• As the days got shorter, he may be responding to instinctual pressures to establish a territory and secure an appropriate nesting location. This naturally occurs in the late fall and early winter. (Eurasian Eagle-Owls don’t build nests. They use cliffs, take over other raptor nests or can even nest on the ground.)
• He’s checking for other owls, which would be both competitive males or potential mates.
• His roosting locations were beginning to lose their leaves, and were offering less cover than in the summer. He could simply have been looking for a more protected place to roost.

It’s hard to say which is the correct answer or answers. There could be other facters in play as well.

His moving outside of the park does increase his risks of dying. Rodenticides are a major problem for urban owls, especially for Flaco as he continues to have a rodent only diet. So, as he explores there is some concern among those following him.

Tonight was a joy, after so many weeks. It was great to see Flaco after so long, ten months after his release from the zoo.

I started the night watching a block near the American Museum of Natural History. He has been reported roosting there at least four times. I didn’t see him fly out, and I don’t think the five or six other observers saw him either.

I went out to dinner and a friend texted me that she heard Flaco but couldn’t find him around 7 pm. I didn’t see the text until after I got home. So, my evening with Flaco started around 8:30. I missed the crosstown bus, so I walked along the southern end of the Reservoir west. When I got closer to Central Park West, I heard Flaco. After not seeing him for weeks, just hearing him got my heart racing. I hadn’t seen social media reports of his being on 5 West 86th Street, but using sound found him on my own. It was so wonderful to see him.

He then flew to a water tower on the south side of 86th Street closer to Columbus Avenue, 40 West 86th Street. In my photographs, he looks to be in a cage, but he was on a crossbar outside of a ladder with a safety cage. He hooted and hooted. It was impossible to get clean recording of him with the traffic noise, but you could hear him very clearly from the street. Folks out walking their dogs, said he had been heard on Friday night was well.

Flaco then went southeast to a building between 84th and 85th streets, 241 Central Park West. He made one brief hop from one corner to another on the top tower. He hooted for a long time before flying off and gliding to the Great Lawn of Central Park. When we got there he was on a backstop, but quickly flew northeast. He flew low as though he was going to catch something on the lawn, but he couldn’t be relocated. At this point, it was way after Midnight, so the four of us looking for him left before the park closed at 1 am.

We assumed that his returning to the park meant he was most likely hunting there. This was comforting, as the rodents within the park have a much lower risk of being poisoned.

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl that was released by a vandal (vandals?) on February 2^nd, after almost nine months left Central Park and was seen in the East Village and the Lower East Side a few times in early November. He came back uptown to a building perch on Fifth Avenue a few days ago, and on Friday and Saturday roosted back in Central Park. He wasn’t seen on Sunday.

Flaco has been exploited by many humans: the animal activist who released him, the zoo who kept him in a small cage, failed to protect him and then recover him, and the media (both social and traditional) who have perpetuated a false narrative that a feral bird who is at great risk in Manhattan, is now wild and free to live a full rich life.

It is frustrating to see how much he has been exploited, and that he continues to be exploited. Sadly, no one seems to be looking out for Flaco. There were plenty of opportunities to recover him this summer, but the zoo sadly did nothing. Manhattan simply isn’t a safe place for an Eurasian Eagle-Owl. While he’s done much better than expected, he will most likely not survive more than a year or two in the city.

Since he’s been in the news, X (formerly twitter) is full of inaccurate statements about him. I want to comment on a few issues:

His Wandering: Flaco exploration of the island of Manhattan, was to be expected and will continue. It was surprising that he stayed within Central Park for as long as he did. He will make more trips away from the park. He is establishing territory, looking for other owls, and will try to find a mate later in the year.
His hooting, and the fact that he will never find a mate in New York doesn’t mean he’s unhappy. He isn’t heartbroken. No one needs to find him a girlfriend! No one needs to be his matchmaker. He is simply being an owl.

Also, his breeding with another owl species is next to impossible. While breeders have been able to crossbreed both Great Horned and Snowy Owls with Eurasian Eagle-Owls, there are no recorded cases where this has happened naturally.

And of course, if there was a risk of his corrupting the Great Horned or Snowy Owl gene pool, I would suspect tough action would be taken. Either the nest and/or Flaco would be destroyed by wildlife authorities.

Oddly folks came up with some crackpot theories as to why he started roaming, including the fireworks for the NYC Marathon weekend opening. He most likely left before then, and he experienced a week of fireworks around the 4^th of July and he didn’t leave the park. He also didn’t leave to find food, as Central Park has more than enough rats.

Of course, the problem of scores of people talking under his roost tree and bringing their dogs, keeping him awake all day while he roosts in Central Park is never discussed on social media. People are happy to exploit him by sharing his roost location, which is something that birders do not normally do. Flaco watchers are happy to bother him, and then say “It’s OK, he was used to people because he was in the zoo.”

Safety: Most of Manhattan isn’t a safe place for owls to live. Currently, Manhattan only has breeding owls in Inwood Hill Park. Otherwise, owls that survive here just come for the winter or are passing through the area.
In Central Park, the reintroduced Eastern Screech-Owls all died or left, and the longest any larger owl has stayed and survived in Central Park in recent years is under 18 months.

Rodenticides are a major issue for owls and raptors in the Manhattan, and in urban areas across the nation. It is a constant threat and many deaths assumed to be from accidents are due to impairment from ingesting rodenticides. So, the number of cases is under reported.

2^nd generation rodenticides are anticoagulants that cause the rats to die due to internal bleeding. They can take 2-12 days to take effect, and those that eat non-lethal doses can retain the poisons in their livers for months. (Rats live in colonies, and if a rat dies due to eating something, the other rats learn to avoid that food. So, the longer the poison takes to kill a rodent, the more effective it is. But this makes it deadlier to raptors.) Eating just one rat that has been poisoned, may be enough to kill a bird. And since a poisoned rat is easier to catch since it is lethargic, the chances of catching a deadly one increases.

Vehicular traffic is also an issue. Owls have large eyes, but their movement is fixed. They must move their heads to see in different directions. While flying this restricts their field of view and makes them susceptible to collisions. Flaco sometimes would cross the west drive of Central Park only a few feet off the ground, so this is a major concern now that he is leaving the park.

Weather: Flaco lived in an outdoor enclosure at the Zoo, so he’s used to our climate. Eurasian Eagle-Owls live in a wide range, some much colder than New York. So, no one needs to worry about him this winter.
He did have some issues cooling down this summer and would need to cool down after flights on hot days. But he handled those hot nights without a problem.

Rat Control: Owls and other raptors do not have any impact on the rodent population of New York City. There are simply too many Brown Rats and not enough raptors. To put it into perspective, there are estimated to be 3 million Brown Rats in New York City. While it’s cute to call him the #ratczar, he has absolutely no impact on the rodent population.

His weight and health: While those of us who watched him eat multiple White-footed Mice on a single night, joked he was now Gordo (fat is Spanish), rather than Flaco (skinny in Spanish), he has most likely not gained any appreciable weight. He was fed well in the zoo. To make the case that he has gained weight, observers have been using random pictures of Flaco. They aren’t comparing apples to apples. Owls can fluff their feathers in cold weather to stay warm, and Flaco when he is very relaxed and cold can look very plump. I’ve taken hundreds of hours of video, starting from the night he was released, and I can attest to the fact that he hasn’t changed in size.

Many people have also commented that he looks healthier out of his cage. However, he was perfectly healthy on the day of his release. Back in February, there was a concern that he might have had poor muscle tone, due to his small enclosure. However, this turned out not to be a problem. His early issues landing and branching in trees, were due to his inexperience maneuvering in trees, not due to his muscle tone. He spent many hours, during the first few evenings in Hallett Sanctuary, practicing branching. He was a quick learner and soon moved on to hooting and learning to hunt.

He did break a few feathers during the few first week, including a primary, but after molting this summer, he looked great again.

Escaped or Released? Flaco has his cage cut open, so I believe is most accurate to say he was released rather than escaped. It was disturbing to learn how poor the zoo security was managed, and that no reward was offered to catch the person who let Flaco go.

Wild or Feral? Flaco isn’t a wild bird. He was raised in captivity and released in the largest city in the United States. While he as adapted to his new conditions, he is a domesticated bird that was released into an urban environment free of other Eurasian Eagle-Owls. It is inaccurate to he’s wild and free.

Tagged? On X individuals insisted on saying Flaco was tagged last week. He is not banded and he has no radio or GPS tags.

His future was never binary: The simplistic argument has always been “zoo bad”, “wild good” on social media. This fits well within the character limits of X, but there were better alternatives. Instead of sabotaging his capture, which happened in February, people could have worked to find a better home for Flaco. He could have been rescued and public pressure could easily have been directed at the zoo to find a better home for him. The choice wasn’t limited to either returning him to a small cage or letting him roam free and most likely die in under two years.

Instead, irresponsible individuals published the location and plans of the rescues. When the public should have been encouraged to stay out the way of the teams working to capture Flaco, crowds interfered with the rescues. Some individuals even went as far as to harass the rescuers, both by creating a scene to prevent one rescue and by calling in death threats against the rehabbers who were assisting the zoo.

This summer when it would have been possible to resume working to recover Flaco, the zoo took a cowardly route, choosing an option that was best for the public relations of the zoo, over what was best for Flaco.

Over the last few days, Flaco’s new habits have begun to come into view. He seems to now be roosting, but not always in the same place, in the southern end of the “Alphabet” in the East Village. He then seems to be flying out and staking his claim to tall buildings around Corlears Hook Park.

After this it’s unclear what he’s doing. Tonight he went to the north end of the Lower East Side, hooted on two perches on a high building before diving down. He may have or may not have ended up in Hamilton Fish Park. It’s unclear where he is hunting.

Flaco is a feral Eurasian Eagle-Owl, who was released by vandal(s) in February. He does not belong in Manhattan. It’s been fascinating to see him adjust so quickly to life outside of the zoo, but he just isn’t equipped to survive on the rodenticide laden streets of New York. While it was lucky he stayed in Central Park for as long as he did, it was only a matter of time that he would move on.

He’s free because the Wildlife Conservation Society lost control of the narrative to a selfish self-promoting social media influencer. The free Flaco movement wasn’t and isn’t about Flaco’s well being. It’s a way of growing social media followers and getting likes.

The last time I saw Flaco was on Halloween night. He hasn’t been spotted in Central Park in November. A number of folks have looked for him both during the day and at night without success.

I hope he’s well and he turns up soon.

Update 11/6/23: Flaco was found on November 6th in a small park in the “Alphabet”. While it’s a relief that he’s been found, it will be interesting to see how he does downtown.

Monday and Tuesday nights were both similar, with Flaco quickly disappearing to the east after fly out.

On Monday night the pre-fly out activity was fairly normal with stretching and hooting. At fly out it was a quick set of perches with a small amount of hooting from Green Bench, the West Drive and Nuttery’s Battery (in a tree just north of the one he normally uses). Then he dropped down going south east and was quickly out of sight.

On Tuesday, the pre-fly out activity was interesting as Flaco stared and stared to the south. He had his eye on something. He never hooted and seemed really fixated on something to the south. At fly out he went quickly to a Black Locust at the compost heap, and then went east. He couldn’t be relocated.