Flaco the Owl Is With Us No More

The Eurasian eagle-owl Flaco, who escaped his confines in the Central Park Zoo in February last year, has met a sad end to his legendary life. The magnificent raptor, who became the city’s symbol of defiance and resilience over the course of his twelve months of freedom, was killed when he flew into the side of a building on Manhattan’s Upper West Side.

Flaco was hatched on the Ides of March, 2010, in a North Carolina bird park. After a few months the chick was brought to the Central Park Zoo, where he lived in captivity for more than 12 years in an enclosure the size of a bus stop, alongside fake rocks and a painted backdrop.

On February 2, 2023, some vandals – or perhaps animal-lovers, we’ll never know – cut open the steel mesh on Flaco’s cage. The longtime captive saw his chance and flew the coop that night, but stayed in the trees in and around the zoo. The zoo staff tried to capture him because, after all, Flaco could never survive on his own, having never been taught to hunt – or even to fly for that matter.

The zookeepers gave up after a couple weeks, as Flaco proved he could do both. For the next twelve months he would delight crowds in and around Central Park, birders armed with giant zoom lenses who came from all over the world to see the great Flaco, free as a bird. He lived mostly on rats, but was not averse to the occasional pigeon. For some reason he did not sup on squirrels, which would occasionally boldly pose next to Flaco in the trees.

There will be songs written about Flaco. Poems, paeans, ballads. Flaco, Evicerator of Rats … We still cannot quite believe he’s gone.  Good-bye, you magnificent creature.

Photo credit: Julie Larsen / Wildlife Conservation Society