Will the high-profile death of a celebrity owl be the final straw that wakes up the general public about the dangers many institutional and commercial facilities pose to birds? Maybe not, but for a few days at least, the topic of building design materials as they relate to birds in flight caught the public’s attention.
New York City’s celebrity owl Flaco recently died from a traumatic impact, zoologists confirmed a day after he reportedly flew into a building, according to The Guardian. The Eurasian eagle owl named Flaco, which escaped New York City’s Central Park Zoo last year, died after crashing into a building in Manhattan. Flaco went down after striking a building on West 89th Street, and people reported the injured owl to the Wild Bird Fund (WBF). WBF staffers soon found Flaco unresponsive and pronounced him dead at the scene.
What happened in Flaco’s final hours is top of mind for his fans across the city who cheered him on as he defied the odds by fending for himself despite a life in captivity. Police are still seeking to arrest whoever let him out of his enclosure at the Central Park Zoo a year ago.
Dan Hounsell is senior editor for the facilities market. He has more than 30 years of experience writing about facilities maintenance, engineering and management.
