Flaco, New York’s Celebrity Owl, Found Dead After Crash

New York residents are mourning the loss of Flaco, the Central Park owl, after he was reported dead.

New York residents are mourning the loss of Flaco, the Central Park owl, after he was reported dead on Friday, Feb. 23, due to a collision with a Manhattan building on West 89th Street.

For more than a year, the Eurasian eagle owl was spotted flying throughout the city, earning him celebrity status to the point that he had several Twitter and Instagram accounts created in his honor.

He had escaped the Central Park Zoo in February 2023 after his exhibit had been vandalized. Since then, zoo staff had been monitoring him closely and were ready to recover him if he showed any signs of distress.

How Exactly Did Flaco Die?

Julie Larsen / Wildlife Conservation Society / Central Park Zoo

The first sign that he was in any sort of danger happened on Friday when the building occupants reported the downed owl to the Wild Bird Fund. Staff responded to the scene and declared him dead before having him transported to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy (an autopsy for animals).

The Wildlife Conservation Society, which runs the Central Park Zoo, issued a statement on Saturday that the 4.2-pound owl likely died due to acute traumatic injury from the collision. However, more examinations will be done to see if there were any other underlying factors that contributed to his death.

Flaco is one of about 250,000 wild birds that die each year in New York City as a result of building collisions. Hundreds of New Yorkers visited Central Park on Saturday and left flowers and cards at the foot of trees Flaco would frequent.

For more famous birds, read “Most Popular Birds Who Became Famous in Pop Culture.”