The owls have some new homes.
A colony of barn owls nesting in Manhattan that was recently torn apart by construction workers, angering locals and sparking a state investigation, has been given a new home.
The tribe was built a new nesting area after their previous home, a water tower atop a building at West 75th Street and Central Park West, was accidentally removed, the state Department of Environmental Conservation said Saturday.
“To protect the barn owls at this site, an alternative habitat (i.e., an owl box) was installed under the guidance and supervision of DEC,” the agency said in a statement to The Washington Post on Saturday, which included a photo of the new wooden aviary-like nesting area.
The statement added that the department is “committed to protecting native wildlife and ensuring their safety and welfare” and “continues to monitor active barn owl habitat near the West 75th Street Water Tower in Manhattan.”
After construction crews first damaged an owl’s nest while demolishing a water tower at an Upper West Side building earlier this week, DEC police ordered the demolition work to stop while the agency investigates potential violations.
But just hours after receiving the stop-work order on Friday, construction crews were back at work and continuing to damage the nest.
It is illegal to destroy an active barn owl nest because the species is protected by state law.
The owls, who have been likened to neighborhood “celebrities” since moving onto the roof earlier this month, survived the initial trauma and later returned to the site.
However, experts fear a second attack could have dire consequences.
“The work that’s happening today is certainly more disturbing to them,” Jessica Wilson, executive director of BirdLife New York City, said Friday.
Barn owl nests in New York are extremely rare, and the nest on the Upper West Side was the first documented nest outside of Central Park in Manhattan.
These nocturnal birds usually nest in man-made structures, usually starting in April and May when the young are ready to disperse and establish their own habitats.
By August or November, most young barn owls have left the nest and fortified their homes.
Once the young are naturally separated from their parents, they either find a new home in the borough or they flock to nearby areas and join other barn owl populations.
Upper West Side property owners were issued cease-and-desist orders on Friday, and the New York Road Runners, organizers of Sunday’s marathon, canceled a drone show over Central Park out of alarm over the owl’s fragile state.