Famous Owl Flaco's Death Brings New Urgency For Passing Bird Law

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — Grief for the beloved owl Flaco, who was found dead on Friday at an Upper West Side courtyard, could end up ruffling feathers in bird law.

A memorial has popped up at Flaco's favorite oak tree on the east side of Central Park near East 104th Street — a spot the Eurasian Eagle owl often returned to as he was just getting used to his new sense of freedom after he was set loose from the Central Park Zoo by a still at-large vandal a little more than a year ago.

Many shed tears for the bird — like Ruben Grion, a 73-year-old registered nurse, who told the New York Times that he cried after hearing the news on Saturday.

Others are pushing for a Central Park memorial for the famous feathered New Yorker, as the 14-year-old bird's symbolic journey from birth in captivity to death in the concrete jungle touched so many, bird watchers or otherwise, across the five boroughs.

“He’s a symbol of just enjoying being out and letting the sun hit you,” Grion told the Times. “It’s a heart-opening experience of what it means to be free.”

But lawmakers in Albany say the best way to honor the beloved bird is to pass a pair of languishing bills aimed to protect the roughly 250,000 birds who die every year after colliding into New York City's buildings, according to ornithological studies.

State Sen. Hoylman-Sigal, who represents the Upper West Side district where Flaco's feathered body was found, announced Monday a new push to pass the two bills he sponsored.

One of the bills — The Bird Safe Buildings Act — will be renamed the FLACO Act (Feathered Lives Also Count), Hoylman-Sigal announced.

“I’m gutted at the death of Flaco the owl, who delighted countless New Yorkers through his presence in Central Park," Hoylman-Sigal said Monday.

"His death after apparently striking a glass window pane raises the importance of our passing common-sense laws to help stop preventable window strikes, which kill millions of birds, like Flaco, each year. By renaming our legislation to require state-owned buildings to incorporate bird friendly designs, we’ll not only honor this magnificent creature, but hopefully inspire our legislative colleagues to pass both the FLACO Act and the Dark Skies Protection Act," Hoylman-Sigal said.

The Dark Skies Protection Act would aim to limit nighttime light pollution, which disorients migrating birds, who typically make their remarkable, continent-spanning journeys under the cover of darkness.

Buildings with their lights late at night on can attract and disorient birds, causing them to fly into buildings resulting in often deadly outcomes.

During migration seasons in the spring and fall, the Wild Bird Fund recommends bird fans carry around small brown paper bags incase they come across an injured bird so it can be brought to their Upper West Side rehabilitation facility safely.

Upper East Side Senator Liz Krueger said she supports both bills, adding that "the death of Flaco has brought attention to an important but underappreciated feature of humanity's impact on our environment."

"Small changes in the way we do things - like turning off office building lights at night - can have a big positive effect," Krueger said.

The bird laws also count on support upstate.

"Collision into windows is the second greatest cause of bird deaths in the US, and it is completely preventable," said Assembly Member Anna Kelles, who represents Ithaca, home of Cornell University’s prestigious Lab of Ornithology.

“Every year collisions kill a quarter million birds in New York, and up to a billion in the U.S.," said Andrew Farnsworth, a research associate at the lab, "that’s 30 birds every second - probably more given that these estimates are more than a decade old in some cases."

Farnsworth studies bird migrations and how science, technology, and community action can make buildings safer for birds. He says birds striking buildings has now become a primary source of bird population declines over the past 50 years — and should be addressed.

It's not just errant nighttime light that causes bird collisions, he says. During the day, transparent, untreated and reflective glass all pose harms to birds, who see only a clear path forward based on the reflections of sky and vegetation, Farnsworth said.

"Eliminating unnecessary light and treating glass offer proven solutions to mitigating this component of the alarming bird population declines in the last 50 years," said Farnsworth. "Flaco captivated New York and global communities for over a year and this attention that connected people to Flaco can connect people to birds, to their plights in natural and artificial environments, and hopefully to what we can do to protect all of these.”

While these bills would undoubtedly save countless bird lives, many are doubtful it could have saved Flaco.

The initial necropsy report from Bronx Zoo pathologists noted extensive damage to Flaco's body and chest, and, aside from some bleeding behind the eye, there was "no evidence of head trauma."

"This is not the story of a bird that flew into a window," wrote editor Barry Petchesky for Defector, "this appears to be the story of a bird who fell from his perch and died from smashing into the ground."

"We think it's unlikely that, strictly speaking, Flaco was a building strike," wrote David Barrett, who runs the ever-popular Manhattan Bird Alert account on X, the website once known as Twitter, who also noted he thinks that Flaco was "weakened."

"But we want people to be aware that reducing building strikes is easily achievable and a serious issue in conservation," he wrote in a post.

A pending toxicology report may reveal that Flaco suffered the same rodenticide-laced fate that doomed the last Central Park owl that captured the city's heart, Barry the barred owl, a top fear of bird watchers since his release last February.

At Flaco's oak tree, a pile of flowers, notes and pictures of the late friend piled up, according to an image shared to social media.

"8.5 million people wander past each other anonymously in New York City every day," the user wrote, "always striking when the city pauses and recognizes a local celebrity that touched many people’s lives."

Related coverage:

• Fugitive Central Park Zoo Owl Eludes UES Police Tactics On Madison Ave
• Flaco, The Escaped Central Park Zoo Owl, Has Died: Officials
• Admiration, And Anguish, As Central Park Owl Fans Flock To Flaco
• Superb Owl: Flaco Adapts To Life In Central Park, Consumes Rat
• NYC Celebrates As Flaco The Freedom Owl Feasts On A Rat
• Flaco Flees Love-Starved Central Park In Search Of Downtown Hooters