David Lei
This is Flaco. He used to live in the Central Park Zoo.
One year ago, someone set him free.
“He’s doing things he never did before,” said Richard Prum, a bird expert at Yale.
Supported by
The Year Flaco the Owl Roamed Free
He fled the Central Park Zoo and made the rest of Manhattan his new home. What has he been up to?
It started with a brazen act in the heart of Manhattan.
After dusk on a frosty evening at the Central Park Zoo, someone shredded the mesh on an enclosure that was home to a Eurasian eagle-owl named Flaco.
Before long, Flaco was spotted a few blocks away on Fifth Avenue. Nobody knew where this bird with fiery orange eyes had come from, and soon he was off to a tree by the Pulitzer Fountain, outside the Plaza Hotel. A tourist with wings.
Call it an escape, a release, a departure, a crime — Flaco was free. Could he fend for himself after a lifetime in captivity?
A year later, the answer is definitely yes. He has spent most of his time in Central Park, though he has wandered all over Manhattan, peering into apartment windows with his striking eyes.
Flaco has captured the public’s attention in New York and beyond, an underdog and feel-good figure in troubled times. Birders and fans track him in person or follow his exploits online. But how has he experienced New York? What does the city look, feel and sound like from his bird’s-eye view?
