By Gus Saltonstall
In a major, unexpected development, multiple Barn owls may have now been spotted outside a building on West 76th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus.
Elisabeth Williams, who sent in a recent photo over the weekend of a Barn owl on the windowsill of the Upper West Side building, reached back out to West Side Rag on Tuesday night.
“Tonight between 9:30-10:00pm my husband (Sam) and I took photos of at least 4, maybe 5, owls – and have a handful of pictures,” Williams wrote to WSR.
Here is how she explained what happened.
“Last night, around 9:30 p.m., I was brushing my teeth when I heard that familiar sound: the call of the American Barn owl,” Williams wrote. “Sam [her husband] thought he could make out two distinct screeches, so we put on some sweatshirts and stepped out onto our back patio. Scanning the windowsills, I spotted the first small silhouette.”
“Over the next 30 minutes or so, we watched two flyovers, snapped some photos, and listened to the calls,” she added. “Back inside, we compared our pictures and their timestamps and were shocked to see there may have been up to four or five owls in total!”
None of the couple’s photos capture four or five birds in one frame, but the Williams did photograph what looks like two, then three, Barn owls on top of a water tower, while observing other similar-looking birds in the courtyard.
The Williams also photographed the owls closer up as well.
“Suddenly I feel as if we’re living at Number Four, Privet Drive — it must be a certain 11 year old’s birthday,” Sam told West Side Rag in reference to the role of owls in Harry Potter.
While the Williams are confident all of the birds they saw are owls, the couple wasn’t positive if they were all Barn owls.
WSR reached out to Manhattan Bird Alert, the popular bird sighting X account, to ask their opinion on the matter.
“The photos are blurry, but coloration and shape are consistent with Barn owls,” the bird account said, which previously confirmed the Williams’ first photo as a Barn owl.
As noted by the New York City Parks Department, it is “extremely rare” to see one Barn owl in New York City, let alone multiple. In terms of the odds of seeing multiple Barn owls together, the birds do mate for life in many instances and raise their chicks together until they are old enough to set off on their own, according to an organization dedicated to raising awareness about owls.
Barn owls also exclusively come out at night to hunt.
There is nothing in any of the photos that clearly points to Barn owl chicks or much of a size difference at all between the different birds.
Please let us know in the comments if you have any expertise in identifying whether these are all Barn owls.
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Sounds like they’re organizing !
someone had a nest…Barn Owls are known for having especially large clutches of eggs/young (6-8) especially in years with lots of food. They are rat specialists.
That actually makes me nervous for them. I know dogs who have been poisoned by eating poisoned mice and rats in Riverside,
Look what happened to Flaco. 🙁
Thank you Elisabeth and Sam Williams (and WSR) for bringing this spot of joy to what has been otherwise a dark time.
Well, it was after the sun went down. 😉
Dark time?
Ah, here we go. The comments section is going to go down the usual dark hole
Well those sunsets are happening earlier and earlier …
Funny!
I remember when flaco was camped out on my courtyard water tower. Who who who all night
Who?
Somebody left the barn door open
“In a major, unexpected development, multiple Barn owls may have now been spotted outside a building on West 76th Street, between Central Park West and Columbus.” is my new favorite sentence.
Has anyone asked the folks at Wild Bird Fund for their take?
I’m looking forward to their social media accounts being created.
Thank you Williams’ and WSR for bringing these amazing pictures and story to brighten my day. This is fascinating and I hope there might be owl experts out there who can opine on why we suddenly have these lovely, unlikely neighbors. Keep the pictures coming!
Birds migrate during fall to their wintering habitats. So some/all of these barn owls could be passing through here on their journeys or they could have nested in Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refugr or other local suitable habitats and are dispersing locally. For more information about bird migration, check out https://birdcast.org/science-center/peak-migration/.
I have a slightly blurry photo of one on the fire escape here on 79th Street – how to send?
It’s wonderful to see this kind of wildlife in the city. I do hope these owls don’t meet the same fate as Flaco the owl, poisoned to death by consuming rats full of rodenticide.
absolutely, totally! We don’t want rats, but we don’t want to poison raptors, either.
I for one welcome our new Owl Overlords.
There was recently a fascinating documentary called “The Staircase”, which was also made into a Netflix series. One of several theories put forth about how Kathleen Peterson was killed blames an owl attack (I still think it was her husband.) But is this therory grounded in fact? Are owls dangerous and how often, if ever, do they attack humans?
that’s very bad news! That means there is a huge rat and mouse population. ITs because people keep feeding the pigeons, which also bring out the rats and mice!
I know!! Whenever I say “you should not be feeding the pigeons” to someone on the street, they ignore me, or curse at me, or both
Ah, comments are going dark again…
That’s amazing. Don’t let your small pets out unattended!
Owls have very sensitive hearing which is why you don’t see them in the city too much despite the abundance of rodents.