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'It is a crime!': Upper West Side owl lovers outraged after rooftop work wrecks nest
By
Carol Chen
Published Oct 30, 2026
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By
Carol Chen
Published Oct 30, 2026
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Politicians, police and wildlife officers flocked to an Upper West Side apartment building Friday in an urgent effort to stop work on a rooftop water tower where a beloved family of seven barn owls had nested.
The two owl parents and five fledglings have turned heads since the family was first spotted on West 75th Street in early October. But on Thursday, some owl admirers noticed workers had disturbed the nest while removing the roof of the water tower for repairs. Video from onlookers showed a worker apparently using a torch, which sent smoke up into the nest.
Bird lovers were alarmed, contacted the authorities and believed the owls would get a reprieve from further disturbance. The owls are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
But on Friday, the owl lovers — including state Sen. Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal — were stunned to see a worker back up on the water tower.
“The first time in probably a century we have nesting barn owls,” said Rita McMahon, the director of the Wild Bird Fund. “How could you do that to them?”
Birders said the fledglings had returned to the rooftop last night and were being fed by their parents, though they were no longer hunkering down in their nest, which was mostly destroyed. They desperately tried to prevent any further disturbance to the owls’ abode.
“You’re violating federal law,” Hoylman-Sigal yelled, banging on the building’s front door.
“They wouldn’t let us in,” he said, adding that the building manager saw them coming and ducked into the elevator.
State Sen. Erik Bottcher and Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal worked the phones trying to force a stop to work on the roof.
Carol Chen/Gothamist
The politicians worked the phones. Bottcher said he called Mayor Zohran Mamdani and his staff. “Any wrong movement could send these owls to their deaths,” Bottcher said.
Hoylman-Sigal said Department of Environmental Conservation officers headed to the construction company’s office in Long Island City to serve cease-and-desist papers. New York Road Runners has canceled a drone show planned for Friday night to avoid disturbing the owls, he added.
By the afternoon, environmental conservation and NYPD officers entered the building and spoke with the workers on the roof. The repairs seemed to be paused again and workers were seen leaving the building.
“I am shocked that this work even proceeded this morning at all,” NYC Bird Alliance executive director Jessica Wilson said.
Efforts to reach the landlord and management company of the building near Central Park West were unsuccessful.
Wilson feared the second day of construction had pushed the young owls away from the site, leaving them to starve without the help of their parents.
One of the fledgling owls was spotted on the rooftop after the nest was wrecked.
NYC Bird Alliance
McMahon said the family of owls had scattered, with some perching on air conditioners and windowsills on nearby buildings. The young can fly but have not learned to hunt, and they need several weeks with their parents to pick it up, she said. “First they fly, then they learn how to be an owl,” she said.
She asked the Wildlife Conservation Society and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology for advice on a replacement roost box for owls that are nearly grown. Volunteers were inquiring with nearby buildings that might be willing to host the roost and keep people away from the roof for a few weeks.
The raptor lovers were heartbroken.
Kathryn Russell, 63, an Upper West Side resident who took up birding during the pandemic, said the work could have waited until the young birds left.
“Put up with the noise for three more weeks and let the birds do their thing and get out of here,” she said.
Mary Ann Zovko, a birder who lives on West 82nd Street, said she had come to watch the owls many nights. “It is a crime,” she said. “You can’t destroy a nest with living birds.”
Wilson said the fledglings will fly around the Upper West Side for the next few weeks. She asked people to keep their distance, skip flash photography and avoid loud noises.
“We all need to protect them,” she emphasized.
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