A rare family of barn owls moved into Manhattan's Upper West Side. New Yorkers are captivated
A family of barn owls has been discovered nesting in a water tower on Manhattan's Upper West Side, marking a rare occurrence in the city's history. The discovery has drawn significant public interest and excitement from local residents.
Why it matters
The event highlights the intersection of urban life and wildlife, serving as a point of community engagement and ecological interest.
NEW YORK — Manhattan's Upper West Side has been reveling in the company of its latest celebrities: A family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.
This is the first documented instance of barn owls nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have attracted nightly crowds of people in the street eager to get a glimpse of the elusive birds.
"It was, like, totally shocking," Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said of the barn owls. "To the best of our knowledge, like the collective birding knowledge, there hasn't been a nest in, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history."
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