Flaco, the huge Eurasian Eagle Owl who escaped from the Central Park Zoo when vandals cut the wires of his cage in early 2023 is dead. After one year of learning to hunt, survive alone in an urban environment, and captivating audiences every day, he collided with a window on a westside building while flying and this was his demise. A necropsy was performed, and it was determined that he had been exposed to several different rodenticides, and had picked up a disease from eating pigeons – which may have been contributing factors in the collision.
I recall seeing him in his favorite area in the North Woods. There he was regally perched high in a tree, feathers blowing in the wind. Below him stood a small phalanx of eager birdwatchers – many of whom might likely count Flaco, a captive bird native to Siberia, as one of the few birds they had seen. What was most interesting was the detailed information people had on his behavior and lifestyle. Certainly more than they might ever know about a cardinal or Blue Jay. Flaco was a celebrity, and he provided a peek inside wildness for city dwellers.
But while New Yorkers and tourists came to love Flaco, he had to cope with the same challenges every bird in an urban environment has. He did an amazing job of adapting from a life where he was fed daily and left undisturbed, to a city life fraught with danger, and the need to learn to feed himself. Flaco’s unnecessary death created the opportunity for some important legislation to protect birds from building fatalities to be reintroduced in New York state. The Flaco Act, if voted in, will require any new or significantly altered state buildings to incorporate bird-friendly designs, particularly in their windows. Nearly a quarter million birds in New York City, and more than one billion across the country, die each year from collisions with buildings. With bird-safe building design, this number can be significantly reduced.
If this bill could become law, Flaco would have served as more than a bird ambassador. He may well make it possible to save the lives of many hundreds of thousands of birds each year in New York, and inspire the same kind of protective legislation in other cities.
If you live in NY State, please write your state senators and representatives, and ask them to support the FLACO act to make New York safer for birds. Here’s how to find your state Senator and Representative.