The Eurasian Eagle-Owl was technically back at the zoo, in a high perch just inside the Central Park Zoo off of the East Drive. It’s a good sign. Hopefully it will return to its enclosure area and it can be netted this evening.

Today, was similar to yesterday but the owl was much more relaxed. Even with harassment by a Red-tailed Hawk, Blue Jays, Tufted Titmouses, and a Gray Squirrel. It looked a lot less stressed. I visited in the early afternoon and returned late in the evening.

When I returned for the evening, the Wildlife Conservation Society team had already left without being able to capture the owl. I was lucky enough to see the movement of owl and keep track of it for two hours. The huge surprise was that it hooted about twenty times in ten minutes, something I wasn’t expecting. Owl watching gives you magic moments, every once in a while, and this was something special.

I watched the Eurasian Eagle-Owl, Day 3 on Saturday afternoon and early evening. It seems much more relaxed now. It was nodding on and off, and as more at ease with the local Red-tailed Hawks, Blue Jays and Tufted Titmouses. It stayed in the same roosting spot all afternoon, and then explored the branch it was on for at least an hour. I left around 6:15 and it hadn’t flown out yet.

It did however do lots of stretching and exploring after sunset. Its behavior reminded me of our local Barred and Great Horned Owls.

This morning, the Eurasian Eagle-Owl flew from Grand Army Plaza in Manhattan to a tree in Hallett Nature Sanctuary, where it spent most of the day before flying down to a lower tree. It was being monitored throughout the day by Wildlife Conservation Society staff.

It got harassed by a Cooper’s Hawk and two Red-tailed Hawk.

But it also got harassed by humans.

An individual with no regard for the welfare of the owl, jumped a fence into the Hallett Nature Sanctuary, and proceeded through the landscape in clear violation of the regulations for the sanctuary, which require patrons to stay on the paths. His response to being thrown out, was that it was worth it because he got great pictures. He went up to the group of us photographing the owl from across the pond, and said “Can you believe it someone called the cops on me”. It made my day to say, “It was me”.

The sanctuary was closed to give the owl a safe space to come lower, and hopefully be captured. No picture is worth putting this owl at more risk!

But even worse. was to find out that someone had vandalized the Eurasian Eagle-Owl’s enclosure and released the owl on purpose. This Dallas Zoo copycat has a good chance of being responsible for the death of this wonderful owl.

It also rubbed salt in the wound to have folks send tweets like this one.

How idiotic for 209 folks to like a tweet like this, and to have it be retweeted on David Barrett’s Manhattan Bird Alert. There is nothing romantic about releasing a bird, not equipped to be in the wild, from the Central Park Zoo. It was irresponsible and horribly cruel. Period!

A male Eurasian Eagle-Owl, named Flaco, escaped from the Central Park Zoo on Thursday. The zoo is managed by the Wildlife Conservation Society. The owl made its way south, and after being on the ground on Fifth Avenue for some time, eventually made to the trees on the south side of Grand Army Plaza across the street from Bergdorf Goodman on 58th Street just west of 5th Avenue.

Wildlife Conservation Society staff were on hand monitoring the situation and waiting for the bird to perch in a location where they can recover it.

Thanks to Twitter users, Edmund Berry/EspressoBird (@EspressoBird) and David Lei (@davidlei) for sharing information about the bird.

Update: Sadly news reports are that this owl was released by vandals from the Zoo. The owl is inside the park, as of noon on Friday, and being monitored.