Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl who escaped from New York City�s Central Park Zoo and became one of the city�s most beloved celebrities as he flew around Manhattan, has died, zoo officials announced Friday.

A little over one year after he was freed from his cage at the zoo in a criminal act that has yet to be solved, Flaco appears to have collided with an Upper West Side building, the zoo said in a statement.

�The vandal who damaged Flaco�s exhibit jeopardized the safety of the bird and is ultimately responsible for his death,� the statement said. �We are still hopeful that the NYPD which is investigating the vandalism will ultimately make an arrest.�

Staff from the Wild Bird Fund, a wildlife rehabilitation center, responded to the scene and declared Flaco dead shortly after the collision. He was taken to the Bronx Zoo for a necropsy.

�We hoped only to see Flaco hooting wildly from the top of our local water tower, never in the clinic,� the World Bird Fund wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter.

Flaco’s time in the sky began on Feb. 2, 2023, when someone breached a waist-high fence and slipped into the Central Park Zoo. Once inside, they cut a hole through a steel mesh cage, freeing the owl that had arrived at the zoo as a fledgling 13 years earlier.

Since the zoo suspended efforts to re-capture Flaco in February 2023, there has been no public information about the crime.

Until now, Flaco had defied the odds, thriving in the urban jungle despite a lifetime in captivity. He became one of the city�s most beloved characters. By day he lounged in Manhattan�s courtyards and parks or perches on fire escapes. He spent his nights hooting atop water towers and preying on the city�s abundant rats.

He was known for turning up unexpectedly at New Yorkers� windows and was tracked around the Big Apple by bird watchers. His death prompted an outpouring of grief on social media Friday night.

One of Flaco�s most dedicated observers, David Barrett, suggested a temporary memorial at the bird’s favorite oak tree in Central Park.

There, fellow birders could �lay flowers, leave a note, or just be with others who loved Flaco,” Barrett wrote in a post on X for the account Manhattan Bird Alert, which documented the bird�s whereabouts.

(AP)