Manhattan's First Barn Owl Family Is Safe for Now. Here's How We Keep It That Way
Manhattan’s first nesting barn owls, atop their water tower home on the Upper West Side, before it was destroyed in October 2026. Photo: Jacqueline Emery
By Andrew Maas, Director of Marketing and Communications | November 9, 2026
It all began with a sound Upper West Siders couldn't name: a rasping scream, long after dark, from a rooftop water tower on West 75th Street. Inside, two Barn Owls were raising five young, the first family of their kind known to nest in Manhattan in modern history.
By Andrew Maas, Director of Marketing and Communications | November 9, 2026
It all began with a sound Upper West Siders couldn't name: a rasping scream, long after dark, from a rooftop water tower on West 75th Street. Inside, two Barn Owls were raising five young, the first family of their kind known to nest in Manhattan in modern history.
It was a rare and very unique window into the life of one of the City’s most elusive birds. New York State lists Barn Owls as a Species of Greatest Conservation Need, and most of the City's few pairs nest in Jamaica Bay and Staten Island. (Read our Barn Owl species profile.) Yet here they were, in the middle of the Upper West Side.
After West Side Rag shared the news in early October, birders gathered on the sidewalk in ever-increasing numbers each night, and reporters started calling. NYC Bird Alliance spoke with The New York Times and the Associated Press about what makes this nest so significant and the conservation threats facing these birds, helping bring the story of Manhattan’s first Barn Owl family to readers well beyond the Upper West Side.
For plenty of New Yorkers, the owls were a first glimpse of the breadth of wildlife that shares our city. While it might be obvious to those in NYC Bird Alliance’s community, many were only now realizing that our dense urban grid, from parks and waterfronts to green roofs and even water towers, provides habitat for nearly 500 species of birds.
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NYC Bird Alliance Steps in to Protect the Barn Owls’ Nest
On the morning of Thursday, October 29, NYC Bird Alliance learned that workers were tearing the roof off the water tower, the only home these owls had known. Destroying an active nest is a crime under federal and state law, and NYC Bird Alliance moved fast. We alerted the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYS DEC) and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, went straight to the building to meet the superintendent, and joined NYS DEC officers on the roof as the agency ordered all work to stop. That night, birders below breathed again: all five young were seen near the tower, and both parents were still bringing them food. Despite the distressing destruction of their home, it appeared the owls were resilient.
NYC Bird Alliance arrived again at the water tower site the next morning, and shockingly saw a worker back on the tower's ladder. Executive Director Jessica Wilson immediately went to the building with Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal and State Senator Erik Bottcher, only to be refused entry. Thankfully, we had also alerted NYS DEC, the NYPD, and NYC Department of Buildings, who joined us and were allowed entry into the building to serve cease-and-desist orders on site, and the building work crew left at 12:40 p.m.
The second threat to these birds came later in the evening. New York Road Runners (NYRR) had planned a drone light show over Central Park ahead of Sunday's marathon, just eight blocks from the owls. It would start at dusk, the hour the parents leave to hunt, the most inopportune time to cause any distress to the owls, already reeling from their home being destroyed. Another shock could have scattered the family before the young could survive on their own. NYC Bird Alliance contacted NYRR and worked with local officials to successfully cancel the drone show under these unique circumstances.
Where the owls are now, and what’s next
With work on hold over the weekend, NYS DEC installed a nest box on the building's roof. Observers soon accounted for all seven owls, and we confirmed they had found new roosts away from the tower, so NYS DEC has allowed minimal repairs to continue.
The young owls still face a hard few weeks as they learn to hunt. Here are two things you can do right now:
- Watch from a respectful distance. Until they strike out on their own, don’t share where they’re roosting, in person or online. (See our guidelines for ethical owl watching.)
- Ask your building to go rodenticide-free. Barn Owls feed on rodents, and poison eaten by a rat passes to the owl that catches it. A single poisoned rat can be fatal to a young owl. (Learn about rodenticide-free rodent control.)
The Biggest Fix: Help Us Pass Lights Out Legislation
The owls weren’t the only birds overhead that Friday night. Most songbirds migrate in the dark, navigating by the stars, and the glow of our buildings pulls them off course and into deadly collisions. NYC Bird Alliance estimates that nearly 250,000 birds die this way in New York City every year. Canceling one drone show protected the owls for a night. On most nights, though, the danger comes from the buildings themselves, with no single show to call off.
Speak up for Lights Out. Intro 998, sponsored by Council Member Harvey Epstein, would require commercial and office buildings to dim unnecessary lights during peak migration. Ask your Council Member to support it. Take action here.
Thank you
We thank everyone who played their part in keeping these owls safe:
- The neighbors and birders who monitored the well-being of the owls, and the photographers who shared their images with us and the press: D. Bruce Yolton, David Lei, Jacqueline Emery, Karen Benfield, Anne Stringfield, Cole Ippoliti, and Ryder Clifford.
- The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation for its swift response to our alert on Thursday and for installation of the new nest box.
- Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal, State Senator Erik Bottcher and Council Member Gale Brewer for being a voice for New York City’s biodiversity.
- The Mayor's Office of Animal Welfare, the NYPD, and the NYC Department of Buildings for standing with us to keep the owls safe.
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