BY LINCOLN ANDERSON | He’s been lookin’ for love in all the wrong places… .
Flaco, New York City’s favorite Eurasian eagle-owl, has ditched the Lower East Side faster than a drunken tourist crashing at an Airbnb. After just one week, the famed bird of prey has flapped back up past 14th Street to his favorite oak tree in Central Park.
Manhattan Bird Alert posted on X that there is “Joy in Central Park” at the free-flying fowl’s return — after a brief layover on Fifth Avenue — to his favorite stomping ground. The runaway raptor has been roosting in the park since busting out of captivity at the Central Park Zoo earlier this year.
Joy in Central Park today as Flaco the Eurasian Eagle-Owl has returned to reclaim his favorite oak tree, standing his ground despite visits from a hawk and some crows. 🦉 ♥️ 🌳 pic.twitter.com/nEgQkP1XSS
— Manhattan Bird Alert (@BirdCentralPark) November 17, 2023
Despite some annoying hawks and crows challenging his turf, the on-the-lam avian has been “standing his ground” in the old oak tree since returning, as Manhattan Bird Alert happily reported. Flaco’s tree is on the east side of the park at 104th Street, right off the park loop.
The owl’s recent drop-in at the Grand Street co-ops sparked Flaco Fever on the Lower East Side. Flaco fans say the owl — who’s been hooting in overdrive lately — ranged Downtown in hopes of attracting a mate. But, sadly, he’ll be lookin’ for love in all the wrong places and won’t be finding it in any faces because he’s the only Eurasian eagle-owl in the wild in all of North America.
Some Village Sun readers are advocating for a female Eurasian eagle-owl to be imported so that Flaco can finally stop flying solo and find a life partner.
Shouldn’t efforts to put Flaco back in the zoo be renewed? Can he stand our winter weather?