#flacos

[dduane]

I for one welcome our new strygine overlord. :)

Backstory: This gentleman escaped from Central Park Zoo in March after his enclosure there was vandalized, and there was a lot of concern over whether or not he could/would survive out of captivity. Unconcerned by this, Flaco settled himself in a particular area of Central Park and spent all the spring, summer, and most of the fall eating large numbers of rats, and genially allowing himself to be photographed by an ever-growing cadre of bird paparazzi.

Then a few weeks ago, possibly irked by repeated mobbing by assorted hawks and corvids, Flaco took off from his normal haunts and went on a brief tour of apartment-building courtyards on the Lower East Side. Now he's on the Upper West Side, within sight of Central Park (so food's no problem, should he feel like heading back that way to hunt), and shouting for everybody to hear that he owns the place. The image above shows him on the water tower of an apartment building at 86th and CPW.

If you look back through the Manhattan Bird Alert and Above 96th Twitter feeds, you'll see many splendid pictures of him. He's a handsome lad, and it's good to see him thriving.

What's in his future? Hard to tell. (Though some people on Twitter are suggesting he should run for mayor.) He may head upstate at some point. But he may decide he's quite happy to be a Manhattanite. As a fellow one, I wish him very well. :)

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

The Bronx Zoo has just released Flaco's necropsy results.

He was not thriving, as the people championing the ideal of "freedom" claimed.

He was poisoned.

He was sick.

He was suffering.

"Freedom" would have eventually killed him. A building just happened to do it first.

"Postmortem testing has been completed for Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl that was found down in the courtyard of a Manhattan building a little over a year after his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo was vandalized on February 2, 2023. Onlookers reported that Flaco had flown into a building on the Upper West Side of Manhattan on February 23, 2024, and acute trauma was found at necropsy. Bronx Zoo veterinary pathologists determined that in addition to the traumatic injuries, Flaco had two significant underlying conditions. He had a severe pigeon herpesvirus from eating feral pigeons that had become part of his diet, and exposure to four different anticoagulant rodenticides that are commonly used for rat control in New York City. These factors would have been debilitating and ultimately fatal, even without a traumatic injury, and may have predisposed him to flying into or falling from the building. The identified herpesvirus can be carried by healthy pigeons but may cause fatal disease in birds of prey including owls infected by eating pigeons. This virus has been previously found in New York City pigeons and owls. In Flaco’s case, the viral infection caused severe tissue damage and inflammation in many organs, including the spleen, liver, gastrointestinal tract, bone marrow, and brain.   No other contributing factors were identified through the extensive testing that was performed. Flaco’s severe illness and death are ultimately attributed to a combination of factors—infectious disease, toxin exposures, and traumatic injuries—that underscore the hazards faced by wild birds, especially in an urban setting."

The naturalistic fallacy kills animals in horrible ways. The romanticism of what humans want to think of as a "free, wild, pure life" cannot be allowed supplant the reality of injury, sickness, and death. Releasing captive animals (or keeping them from being recaptured) because it's "better" for them to suffer untethered than live a healthy, safe, captive life is inhumane and horrific.

Flaco's life didn't have to end in pain, sickness, and suffering.

Flaco's death didn't have to be tragic.

But once the idea of "freedom" entered the chat, Flaco's fate was unavoidable.

[a-bichol]

i am obsessed with himmmmm

(studies from the bird watching twitter!)

[danielnaranjita]

Mientras nadie te diga que "te ves más delgado" es porque no lo estas, mejor deja de comer y haz más ejercicio.

[todaysbird]

let this be a reminder that we have no business using commercial rodenticides in the unregulated way that we do & that rodenticides indiscriminately kill both invasive ‘pest’ rodents along with native species, and anything that might predate on them

[tedcruzisthezodiackiller]

just learned about Flaco the Eurasian eagle owl who people “freed” from the Central Park zoo. people tracked his location on Twitter and every time zoo keepers tried to get him back they would make noise and scare him away. as a result, he died not even a year after his escape after striking a window. he was 13 years old, he would have lived another 40 years if he had been left alone.

being a conservationist really makes me hate the general public sometimes

[haltraveler]

This Flaco situation is like if, in The Martian, people started protesting the effort to save Mark Whatney because he’s free now and how dare you try to put him back in that cramped spaceship!

And NASA keeps trying to explain that Mars is not an environment where people can live but the public said “but look you said he’d be dead by now and he’s thriving!”

And then NASA tells them it’s a ridiculously astonishing feat that he survived a week, let alone months but there are so many dangerous things that can and eventually will kill him. But public outcry gets the funding for a rescue mission cut.

Then when he eventually dies from one of the hazards NASA warned about people all talk about how inspiring his life was and how at least he got to be free and happy on Mars.

[meeks-just-wants-to-scroll]

hey Meeks can i please get my man The Terror of The Grizzlies Flaco Hernandez himself (his RDO dialogue is so flirty it made me believe we are actually dating)

[herpsandbirds]

Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped the central park zoo has died in apparent building collision. It is a dark day.

:C

I was really rooting for him. This is a really sad time for all of us.

RIP FLACO !!!

Flaco, the Eurasian Eagle Owl (Bubo bubo), male, family Strigidae, order Strigiformes, species found across much of Eurasia

photograph via: Manhattan Bird Alert

photograph by JACQUELINE EMERY

photograph by David Barrett 

Read more about Flaco the Owl:

Death of Flaco, NYC’s Celebrity Owl, Calls Attention to Bird Strikes - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

Central Park's Flaco had a family. Conservationists fear other owls will become targets for release. - Gothamist

Flaco the owl dies after colliding with a New York building | AP News

[dduane]

[why-animals-do-the-thing]

Question relevant to Flaco-

It's my understanding that birds are generally able to see UV light, invisible to us. Do you think it would be feasible to create a mesh visible in UV, but not the human visible spectrum, that could be applied to windows and outer surfaces of buildings to reduce bird impacts? Not really concerned about the economic feasibility, just the functional.

This does exist!

UV stickers you can put on residential windows are pretty common these days (if you can access the outside of them - not so good for a Manhattan skyscraper).

I found a couple companies offering UV-reflective options for commercial buildings, in addition to some other visually deterrent options. Guardian BirdFirst UV is a coating, and GlasPro Bird Safe UV looks to be a patterned UV layer inserted between the exterior layers of glass windows.

None of these are totally invisible to the human eye (especially if the surface is wet, for some reason) but they're fairly easy to ignore. Normally they look like stripes or little square dots in a repeating pattern.

This is from the GlasPro site, human vision on the left, bird on the right.

It comes down to convincing people to use them: they have to believe it's important and be willing to put up with something not perfectly invisible that might be "unpleasing" or something. I also don't know how much these coatings cost, but I'd guess they're probably something only organizations that really care will want to shell out for.

[webberwoof]

hi guys. sorry i havent posted in months i am graduating soonish so school has been craycray....heres a dark morph brown falcon photo to apologise..what a handsome guy!

[sambuchito]

“formerly gifted child” pero es fede bal

[danielnaranjita]

Estoy triste o solo volví a subir los kilos que baje ???

[julialundman]

“Flaco, the NYC Eagle-Owl”, 13”x13” watercolor and colored pencil on cream paper. My tribute to Flaco, who escaped his zoo enclosure and made his way over to Central Park. This painting will be on the online gallery website @everydayoriginal tomorrow, April 30th, available to purchase. Thanks for your consideration! 🩷🦉🩷