Owls

Upper West Side American Barn Owls

Over the last 18 months, those of us follow coyotes, have been seeing American Barn Owls in Central Park. The sightings are rare, and usually the owls are hunting like Northern Harriers, gliding low around the park. We’ll see them for only a few seconds, like white ghosts.

During the winter, and especially last December we occationally saw them perched. A few times we saw two together, and photographs implied three different colorations, light toast, medium toast, and dark toast, so might have seen as many as three birds. During the cold snap, one owl was found dead behind the Band Shell.

One of the owls did not like hearing the coyotes howl (who respond to sirens) and on a few occasions would fly to the coyotes, perch over them and cry out.

Except for one day, when an owl was perched in the Pinetum, the roosting location of these owls was a mystery.

So, we knew they were residents of Manhattan, but given their large home territories, we had no idea where they were roosting.



A few weeks ago, I started to hear reports of people seeing and hearing a Barn Owl around a block on the Upper West Side. Then about a week ago, pictures started appearing on social media. I went a few times and didn’t have any luck finding them.

On Wednesday, 10/7, I found three owls on a water tank on the Upper West Side. Others soon found them and the news and the nest location became public. There are two adults and at least five owlets, possibly six. While Barn Owls certainly nested in Manhattan centuries ago, this may be the first record of a nest in Manhattan in the last century.



On the second night of watching the American Barn nest, six owls were visible, and a rat got delivered by a parent and consumed on the roof of the water tank by one of the owlets. (It was hard to tell if the six owls were all youngsters or their was an adult with them.)

It became clear that some of the owlets had already fledged, and a few younger owlets were still a bit shy and reluctant to go on the roof. The eggs are not laid all at once, so they hatch on different days, yielding younger and older owlets.

I’m not surprised that the nest location wasn’t found until these birds started to fledge. While residents of the block heard and saw the adults for a few weeks, until the owlets started to leave the nest finding this nest in the dark would have been very difficult.



On Friday night four owlets explored the roof of the water tank, and one seemed to stay inside. I was able to capture two feedings by the parents.

Even with excellent camera equipment, I’m unable to capture enough detail to tell the parents and the owlets apart.



Only three owls were on the water tank on Saturday, so some of the fledglings must have dispersed, most likely to the roofs and windows on the block, hidden from view from the street. A fourth owlet was on a platform below the nest.



On Sunday there was a brief break in the rain and I was able to watch a food delivery. When the parent delivers the rat, it does a talon-to-beak transfer. As was the case on Saturday, three owlets remain on the tower. When I was leaving, I was able to find one fledgling on a platform below the water tank.



This nest’s location was publicized by a local paper and has attracted a great deal of interest among the birding community and the public at large. While it would have been nice to have had its location and details kept quiet, which is standard practice for owl nests, this didn’t happen.

This nest is an incredibly rare event and was bound to become a news story. We can spend hours being upset that established ethical protocols weren’t followed or we can move forward and educate ourselves and the public.

We can support organizations like the Wild Bird Fund, where statistically at least one of these birds will end up needing care as well as the NYC Bird Alliance who can work to ensure that if the nest site needs to be repaired, nest boxes are set up in the area. And we can talk to passionate but inexperienced owl watchers, in person and online, about how to respect these owls once they begin to leave the nest.

We also need to improve sanitation on the Upper West Side. Politicians are fighting the sanitation department over the deployment of Empire Bins, because they will eliminate parking spaces, rather than supporting them because they will reduce the rodent population. Rodenticides are often used as an afterthought to cover up the mismanagement of trash and end up killing hawks and owls in addition to rodents. 

So, as you watch these videos, enjoy them. Watching these owls is amazing. But I hope you also think about whether the rat is poisoned. Or if the owl will be harassed by onlookers once it leaves the nest. Or if it miscalculates when fledging, will there be someone to take care of it.

Let’s work to make sure this late summer/early fall clutch of American Barn Owl owlets, isn’t just a one-time event.

General News

Wild Inside

I’ve been mostly posting on Instagram this summer, and neglected this blog recently. But I do want to quickly write a bit about Wild Inside, Penny Lane’s wonderful film about Flaco.

Those who read my blog during the time he was free know, I didn’t agree with how he was being treated once he was released and knew he wouldn’t survive in the city. It was not a popular standpoint.

I was initially worried that Wild Inside would be just another fluff piece about Flaco. But is an honest portrayal of his life, and while highly entertaining, also documents the issues Flaco faced while in the zoo and in Manhattan.

I’m pleased by how Penny Lane used the nine minutes of footage I provided for the film and the interview I gave her. My opinions were well respected and the footage was used accurately.

Flaco’s life is a complex story, and it gets the rich treatment it deserves in the film. It is still showing in many art houses across the country. Please go see it. You’ll enjoy it!

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Sick Eyass at Fifth Avenue

The Fifth Avenue eyass fell out of the nest on Tuesday, June 30th around 5:10 pm.

Over the last few days, the 927 Fifth Avenue eyass has been lethargic. It spent hours just standing and recently the father was feeding it, something that is unusual with a fully grown nestling. It had also been on the nest much longer than expected, about 50 days.

On Tuesday when I visited the nest it was clear it was sick. It could not stand up, and then got caught in the side of the nest. In trying to right itself, it fell out of the nest and fell to the ground.

Richard Nelson and I looked inside the park and then both went outside to Fifth Avenue. Someone had put it in a box, and we transported the bird to the Wild Bird Fund.

This year we’ve been having a tough time with the Central Park nests. Two adults died, the male at 93rd and Central Park West and the male at the New York Athletic Club. Two nestlings died on their nests, one at 93rd and Central Park West and one at the New York Athletic Club.

The replacement male at 93rd and Central Park West is confused about the surviving fledgling. He thinks it is a competitor and has been attacking it. The mother is sneaking the fledgling food, but it is not having a normal childhood.

And now this.

Update: The 927 eyass died later that evening in the care of the Wild Bird Fund. Rita McMahon reported, “The bird died overnight. He was severely weak and lethargic, emaciated, severe dehydration, both legs had partial paralysis.” The cause of death wasn’t reported and test results often take weeks to come back.

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

Watching the 927 Fifth Avenue Red-tailed Hawk Nest

The last successful nest at 927 Fifth Avenue was in 2018, when Pale Male and Octavia had two eyasses (hawk chicks). Octavia laid eggs the next year and brooded but the eggs didn’t hatch. There was another failed nest in 2010.

Since it’s been awhile and I suspect there will be many new hawk watchers, young and old, I thought it would be a good time to go through how to watch this nest and how things progress throughout the spring and summer.

I made some slides about Pale Male in 2019 and what to expect to see over a year while watching him. Pale Male is no longer with us, but the slides give you a sense of what to expect this year. This video from 2017 shows the stages of development of eyasses on a nest.

On May 8th, the first feeding was spotted by birders and on May 16 a birder first saw what seems to be this year’s only eyass pop up its head for the first time. Generally, the eyasses fledge (leave the nest) somewhere between 42-46 days after they hatch. Roughly, that puts the fledge date somewhere between June 19th and June 23rd, although we’ve seen eyasses wait longer, sometimes up to 50 days to leave. Young hawks have individual personalities and we see some precocious eyasses fledge early (sometimes too early), and some who just want to stay on the nest and get fed by their parents.

Eyasses grow to full size before they fledge, so we’re going to see this year’s hatchling quickly grow up. That’s good, because it’s really hard to see this year’s eyass now. Generally, it’s been hugging the wall of the building. If you view the cradle and think of it as a clock, it’s generally around 11 o’clock. The best view of it is from a twenty feet north of the canopy of 944 Fifth Avenue, a few blocks north of nest building. But this is far enough away that a spotting scope is really necessary to get a good view.

It will become much easier to watch them with binoculars by the end of May. Soon the eyass will be getting much bigger, but still generally white, and then go through an awkward stage as downy feathers are replace by its flight feathers.

I encourage anyone who hasn’t watched a Red-tailed Hawk nest to do so this year.  It’s incredibly enjoyable.  The “hawk bench”, where the best viewing is from, is just next to the Hans Christian Andersen statue on the west side of the Model Boat Pond.

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks

927 Fifth Avenue Baby Pictures

I had known based on behavior that the 927 Fifth Avenue nest had hatched, had seen brief look at what I thought was an eyass (hawk chick) through spikes and twigs, but today I got great looks at an eyass on the nest. Chances are it’s an only child but we’ll know for sure within the week. The temperatures were warm today, and the video suffers from the thermal distortions of the heat. But I’m happy to share the images, since it is the first time I’m seeing an eyass on this nest since 2018!

927 5th Avenue Red-tailed Hawks, Central Park Coyotes, Northwest Central Park Hawks, Other Animals, San Remo/Pinetum/AMNH Red-tailed Hawks, Southern Central Park Red-tailed Hawks

Spring Central Park Updates

This year I’ve been writing fewer posts on my blog, often just posting some videos or photographs to my Instagram account. It’s an easier way to post photographs and images. I’m still going to the park almost daily. I’m just not blogging so much.

Spring has brought a number of changes to the park, and changed the habits of the coyotes, flying squirrels, and we have a number of successful Red-tailed Hawk nests.

Over the winter, with the sun setting early and the snow and ice, with some hard work, could be tracked and photographed consistently. This spring, however, changes to the park’s environment have meant the coyotes haven’t returned to their habits of last year.

The coyotes are now adapting to the influx of visitors, activity in the Delacorte Theater, and the removal of many fences. Unlike last year, where major construction projects allowed the coyotes to roam through many acres of quiet spaces uninhabited by humans and dogs at night, this year these projects are over. The park has also opening up many lawns that had been fenced off at night last year. In addition, the Delacorte Theater has also begun work preparing for this summer’s performances, often doing work late into the evening.

These change have made it much harder to watch the coyotes, as they are venturing out much later than they did during the winter. Rather than explore the park right after sunset, they’re often just taking long naps late into the evening waiting for the park to quiet down, and then quickly disappearing. It’s a great strategy to thrive in a crowded park, but frustrating for me as an observer. I hope as the weeks go by, they settle into a predictable pattern as they did last year.

This winter was very productive for watching the Southern Flying Squirrels. The snow cover had them using their acorn stashes, and they often ate in low branches often at eye level. But as the weather has warmed up, they are now high up in leafed out tree canopies out of sight. I’m still hoping to find one of their cavities, but haven’t been successful yet.

While the park’s mammals have become harder to watch, this spring has brought us lots of wonderful avian activity. Beyond the rich diversity of birds passing through during spring migration, we have four active Red-tailed Hawk Nests.


927 Fifth Avenue
This is Pale Male’s old nest, which hasn’t had a successful nest since 2018, until this year. The adult female is Octavia, Pale Male’s last mate has a new mate, a new young male with some stripes in his red tail. (The stripes may fade or disappear with future molts, but I’m tempted to call him Stripes.) Based on the parent’s behavior it looks like the nest has hatched. I’m hoping to see eyasses later this week.


87th Street, between Central Park West and the West Drive
This nest appears to be the nest of the pair of hawks that have tried nesting on the San Remo, near the Pinetum, Tanners Spring, and on the American Museum of Natural History. They only had one successful nest, in a pine tree southwest of the Pinetum. When they started building their nest in a tree along a path near a lawn used informally as the Upper West Side’s dog run, there were limited expectations that things would work out. So, it was great news when feedings were reported over a week ago. On Sunday that I saw an eyass for the first time.

The nest is difficult to view. Just as you come into the park from the NE corner of the intersection of 86th Street and Central Park West there is a view, but there is a much better view along the West Drive. It requires being far away from the nest, so a spotting scope is helpful. You can stand between the W8704 and W8801 streetlights on the east side of the drive or go to the W8704 streetlight and cross the drive by walking west.


93rd and Central Park West
This nest was the first to Central Park nest to hatch. (Hawks with established nests tend to lay their eggs earlier than new pairs or pairs building new nests.) The two eyasses are growing up fast.

Watching this nest can be difficult without a spotting scope. In 2024, I published a map detailing where to stand to view the nest.


New York Athletic Club, Central Park South and Seventh Avenue
This nest is active again with two eyasses this year. It’s a great location and an easy nest to watch.