New York's Eagle Owl "Flaco" Embraced Freedom, but in an Environment Full of Man-Made Perils
Explore the many meanings of the death of Flaco the Eurasian eagle-owl, and how to make human habitation safer for our avian neighbors
UPDATED after the webcast ran - Owls have always held mystery and meaning for humans way beyond the average bird. But Flaco, the liberated Eurasian eagle owl who captured New Yorker’s hearts for a year before dying after a violent collision with a building this weekend, took things to a new level.
I hope you can break away to watch and weigh in on my Sustain What discussion of the lessons and options illuminated by the untimely urban death of this remarkable bird and symbol. Watch here on YouTube or watch and share the show via Facebook, YouTube (also below), Linkedin or X/Twitter (@revkin).
My guests were:
Carl Safina, the much-lauded ecologist, conservationist and author, whose New York Times op-ed article was just posted: “Like Many a Hero, Flaco the Owl Made His Choice.” There’s an excerpt below, with a paywall-free link to the full story.
Adam Smith, an architect and director of design at Synecdoche, a Michigan firm centering bird-safe features in its projects.
Brendon Samuels, a Ph.D. candidate at Western University in London, Ontario, studying building design and bird behavior. Samuels, working with the Fatal Light Awareness Program, a k a FLAP Canada, has created and assembled an array of invaluable resources highlighting the bird-building collision crisis and ways to mitigate enormous losses, which, he stresses, are NOT restricted to cities. Here’s one of his graphics (with a link and more below):
I just aggregated a host of relevant links in a thread on X/Twitter:
https://twitter.com/Revkin/status/1762197488188920115
We’ll start, of course, with the sad story of Flaco the eagle owl, born in captivity in North Carolina and caged at the Central Park Zoo for more than a decade, who suffered a fatal collision with a Upper West Side building Friday. The owl gained fame around the city after it left its enclosure a year ago when an intruder cut through the wire cage. Learn more from the Wildlife Conservation Society.
Here’s an excerpt from Carl Safina’s op-ed, in which he captures a widespread interpretation of this tragedy - of the passion in all creatures to roam free rather than live literally cooped up - damn the odds:
Almost from the moment he was released, Flaco became a symbol of hope for many of the people who followed his story and recognized parts of themselves in him. Some saw him as the embodiment of the American dream, an outsider who had come to Manhattan and made a life for himself here, like millions of others who arrived penniless and unconnected in their quest for freedom. Others saw him as a poignant reminder that you can find happiness even if you’re alone (as the only free-living Eurasian eagle-owl in the Western Hemisphere, he had no chance of ever finding a wild mate).
….Though the animal literature is peppered with stories of animals — usually pets — who suffer hardships and return home, Flaco never retreated to the zoo. Perhaps freedom itself was the home he’d discovered.
And though we feared for him, his new life thrilled us…. Have we not all yearned for a life beyond the scope of the one we lead? Flaco showed that our yearning is not misplaced, that we were not merely projecting. His choice reaffirmed a truth: that given a chance, living things choose agency and freedom of movement.
In my own turns as a wildlife rehabilitator, falconer and conservation biologist, I have often observed that when the power of choice is returned to them, animals prefer to take their chances in a free-living existence. Just before the Covid-19 pandemic, my wife and I helped rehabilitate a nestling screech owl found near death, whom we named Alfie. Once she was fit to fly, Alfie briefly came and went from the enclosure that had become her secure home, but she soon chose the larger life.
Here’s the paywall-free gift link to Carl’s full essay. And do buy and read his new book about his relationship with Aflie: Alfie and Me: What Owls Know, What Humans Believe.
For more resources on bird-safe living from Brendon Samuels, click to his links here. Here’s just one more of his fantastic visuals:
Postscripts
Brendon, via X/Twitter, added this valuable example of a window treatment from a firm called CollideEscape: “I highly recommend this product, which has been tested for bird safety by American Bird Conservancy, helps with bird collisions and also reduces your energy bill and risk of buildings overheating.”
