Multiple Barn Owls Possibly Spotted in Upper West Side Building Courtyard

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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