By Gus Saltonstall
A rare American Barn owl has been spotted multiple times over the past month in the backyards of buildings between West 75th and 76th streets, from Columbus to Central Park West, Elisabeth Beall Williams wrote in an email to West Side Rag on Saturday.
“We first heard the owl paying our neighborhood a visit on the night of September 6, and we’ve heard it periodically in the evenings since then,” Williams wrote. “Today, for the first time, we were able to spot it and take a very poor-quality photo. Its screeching is quite loud and we were able to first identify the bird using the Merlin bird ID app.
Manhattan Bird Alert, the popular bird sighting X account, confirmed to West Side Rag that the photo was of a Barn owl.
“It seems unusual for a Barn owl to be in Manhattan – but I am no expert!” Williams added, who said she took the photo from the back patio of a building on the corner of West 76th Street and Central Park West.
She is correct about it being uncommon.
Here’s how the New York City Parks Department describes a Barn owl sighting in the five boroughs.
“Barn owls are extremely rare sights in most New York City parks, but there have been sightings over the years in Pelham Bay, the New York Botanical Garden, and Floyd Bennett Field. Their calls sound like a harsh, raspy scream,” reads a section on the Parks website about owls.
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The first owl I found by myself some 20years ago was a Barn Owl in Central Park. I haven’t seen or heard of one in the park since. Nor do I expect to.