An American barn owl perches on a water tower in the Upper West Side neighborhood on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
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Yuki Iwamura/AP
NEW YORK — Manhattan’s Upper West Side is rejoicing in the company of its latest celebrities: a family of barn owls nestled in a water tower atop a building near Central Park.
This is the first documented case of barn owl nesting in Manhattan in modern history, according to one expert, and the owls have drawn nighttime crowds to the street eager to catch a glimpse of the elusive birds.
“It was totally shocking,” Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, said of the barn owls. “As far as we know, just like the collective knowledge of ornithology, there has not been a nest, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history.”
An American barn owl perches on a water tower in the Upper West Side neighborhood on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
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Yuki Iwamura/AP
News of the barn owl family did not circulate until last week, when Elisabeth Williams, an Upper West Side resident, informed a local media outlet on Oct. 6 that she and her husband had seen several owls at the water tower atop a building on West 75th Street, near Central Park West.
The couple had previously seen a single owl on an apartment windowsill a few days earlier and had already been shocked, Williams recalled.
“In a place like Manhattan, you usually have to go out of your way to encounter nature,” she said. “And there it was, right outside our window.”
Barn owl sightings are rare in New York
This isn’t the first time birds have captivated New Yorkers. Residents have fallen in love with the American woodcocks, which stop at Bryant Park in Midtown Manhattan each year as they migrate north in early spring.
After Flaco, the Eurasian eagle owl, died in 2024, dozens of sad fans gathered to say goodbye to the beloved creature who flew around Manhattan and became a joy to many after someone let him out of his zoo enclosure the year before. Then there was Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk that nested above Fifth Avenue for three decades before dying in 2023.
But sightings of barn owls in New York City parks are very rare, according to the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation. New York is at the northern edge of the barn owl’s range, and the barn owl population has declined “at an alarming rate” over time, according to the state Department of Environmental Conservation.
“There is a lot of excitement among New Yorkers, birders and non-birders alike, about these owls because they really capture the attention,” said Jessica Wilson, executive director of the NYC Bird Alliance. “They’re magical, they’re nocturnal, they’re secretive, you don’t see them often, especially on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. And to have this chance to see these birds is really exciting.”
Photographers and casual spectators gather on the street every evening to spot the owls.
People look at American barn owls perched on a water tower on the Upper West Side, Tuesday, Oct. 13, 2026, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
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Yuki Iwamura/AP
“I’ve only seen one barn owl, and it was in California,” said Val Coleman, a retiree from New York who was on the Upper West Side earlier this week trying to spot the owls. “At dusk, we hope they come out to hunt. We hope they don’t eat poisoned rats containing rodenticides.”
David Barrett, a Manhattan-based birder who runs the popular social media account Manhattan Bird Alert, said he observed at least one adult barn owl and five chicks at the water tower. He also saw an adult owl bringing rodents back to the water tower. There are believed to be two adult owls, and some photographers have claimed to see six chicks, Barrett added.
“Having a barn owl is rare, but it’s not national news. To have a family, for the first time, breeding in Manhattan in history, it’s special news,” Barrett said.
Screams were heard by residents
Before the recent barn owl sightings, Williams and her husband would hear periodic screams outside dating back to early September. They initially assumed it was a bird, but became skeptical when a phone app indicated the noise was coming from a barn owl.
Thomas Obersteiner said he first heard strange screams and moans coming from outside one evening in mid-September. It looked like someone was being “murdered outside,” he said.
“It lasted two or three weeks, every night, sometimes more, sometimes less, coming from different directions,” Obersteiner added. “But I had no idea what it was.”
An American barn owl perches on a water tower in the Upper West Side neighborhood on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, in New York.
Yuki Iwamura/AP
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Yuki Iwamura/AP
On several occasions, Obersteiner or his wife ran into their children’s rooms after mistaking the owls’ cry for a child in pain, he said. It wasn’t until he saw a news report that he realized owls made these sounds.
Farnsworth said the call is typical of barn owls, who use it to communicate with each other. The scream is like “a kind of horror movie experience,” he said.
Obersteiner, who said his rooftop deck is “probably the best place in town right now” for owl viewing, has allowed nature photographers access to this owl-viewing perch “almost every night” since word of the barn owls spread. One night last week, 20 people gathered.
“We can’t say no because it’s so much fun and these people are so serious,” Obersteiner added. “It’s beautiful.”
Williams and her husband weren’t bird watchers before the barn owl family moved into the water tower. But that could change soon after their “delicious” experience.
“I think we’re on the cusp of becoming birders,” Williams said.
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