Screeching American Barn Owl spotted living on UWS and this is why hes moved to the big city
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 thin...