Make New York Post a Preferred Source New York’s newest celebrity resident is a real hoot.
An American Barn Owl has been spotted living in the big city — and he’s making sure all of Manhattan knows he’s here.
The critter — with a distinctive heart-shaped face — has been screeching on the Upper West Side for the past month after apparently moving into the neighborhood full time to take advantage of bountiful rat hunting opportunities in the area.
The white bird was snapped in a papparazzi-esque picture this weekend, titillating neighbors who are apparently impressed that he got such a sweet new Uptown pad without even having to interview with a co-op board.
“It’s always fun to see what kind of wildlife we can get living near Central Park, but this was far more unique and exciting,” said a woman who snapped a picture of the owl from her West 76th Street and Central Park West patio, who asked to be identified only as Ms. Williams.
She said she heard the owl well before she spotted him — she first heard his loud “raspy” screeches over Labor Day weekend.
Neither she nor her husband could identify the unique screams and were even more perplexed when the Merlin app, which can identify bird noises, recognized it as an American Barn Owl.
It wouldn’t be until a month later that Williams spotted the bird hanging out on a neighboring ledge.
Multiple neighbors also reported seeing the owl flying through their yards in recent weeks, according to the West Side Rag, which first reported the rare visit.
But the owl isn’t totally new to Manhattan, birders say — he’s just moved over a few blocks.
This particular American Barn Owl is likely the one that for the past two years had been hunting in Central Park, where the foliage has shrouded him from the normies but made him a favorite for birders.
“What’s new is it being, almost every night, on the Upper West Side outside of Central Park,” said David Barrett, the man behind the popular X account Manhattan Bird Alert.
“It’s reasonable to think that this owl is hunting on the Upper West Side, where it’s pretty easy to catch a rat. Buildings have rats, and it’s easier to catch a rat on a flat surface around the building than it is in a park where rats have all sorts of places they can scurry to and hide,” he explained.
Previously, birders theorized that the owl may have been flying to Central Park from New Jersey’s Meadowlands to hunt, but the rats have apparently proved so bountiful that the bird has become a New Yorker full-time.
“This owl is now a resident on the Upper West Side. That’s big news,” said Barrett.
That’s not to say that the Big Apple is not without barn owls.
Roughly a dozen live on an island in Jamaica Bay, where conservationists have installed dedicated wooden nesting boxes to support their population.
There have also been sightings in Pelham Bay, the New York Botanical Garden, and Floyd Bennett Field, according to the Parks Department.
The bird venturing out onto the city streets, however, does raise cause for concern.
“This is a problem, as I see it, because outside Central Park is also where it’s totally legal and widespread to use rodenticide. Rats outside Central Park can be assumed to be laden with rodenticides, or to have encountered them, at the very least,” said Barrett.
Intervention is unlikely — the species can reach top speeds of 20 miles per hour, making capture difficult.
But fortunately, the barn owl appears healthy and enjoying city life.
