N環球 
Barn owl family nests on Manhattan water tower — first on record in modern history, expert says
A family of barn owls has nested in a water tower atop a building on Manhattan's Upper West Side near Central Park. A Cornell Lab of Ornithology migration ecologist called it 'totally shocking' — the first documented barn owl nest in Manhattan in modern recorded history — as nightly crowds gather hoping for a glimpse.
Why it matters
In steel-and-concrete Manhattan, a wild barn owl family choosing a water tower for a nursery is a rare urban-ecology footnote. Experts confirm it is the first documented case in modern recorded history, and word of mouth now draws nightly crowds of New Yorkers to the street below.
Full report
According to the Associated Press on October 16, Manhattan's Upper West Side has gained celebrity residents: a family of barn owls nested in a water tower atop a building on West 75th Street near Central Park West.
Andrew Farnsworth, a migration ecologist at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, called it 'totally shocking': 'To the best of our knowledge, like the collective birding knowledge, there hasn't been a nest in, you know, in Manhattan, at least in recorded history.' Since word got out, nightly crowds have gathered in the street eager to glimpse the elusive birds.
The owls went public only last week: Upper West Side resident Elisabeth Williams notified a local news outlet on Oct. 6 after she and her husband spotted multiple owls at the water tower; a few days earlier the couple had been startled just to see a single owl on an apartment windowsill. 'In a place like Manhattan, you normally really have to go out of your way to encounter nature,' Williams said. 'And here it was, just sort of right outside our window.'
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