曼哈顿现代史上已知首个仓鸮巢现身：上西区水塔住进最多8只仓鸮，观鸟者夜夜围观
纽约市最受瞩目的新「明星家庭」不是演艺明星，而是一窝在曼哈顿上西区一座水塔的洞口安家的仓鸮。自它们出现以来，观鸟爱好者每晚聚集前来观看这些夜行居民。专家表示，这是现代历史上有记录以来曼哈顿已知的第一个仓鸮巢；在过去几十年里，仓鸮在纽约州的数量大幅下降，在纽约市极为罕见。
据CBS新闻报道，人们已在水塔处看到多达8只仓鸮——2只成鸟和最多6只幼鸟。上西区居民伊丽莎白·威廉姆斯说，她和丈夫从9月起连续数周在自家公寓露台听到尖利的叫声，最初靠手机观鸟应用辨认出叫声来源；10月3日，她终于拍到照片，确认那是一只仓鸮，并给它起名「斯科蒂」。运营社交媒体账号「曼哈顿鸟类警报」的观鸟者戴维·巴雷特对CBS新闻表示，人们能在这样的公共空间夜间观赏这些鸮，是一种非常特别的体验。
纽约市观鸟联盟执行主任杰西卡·威尔逊对CBS新闻表示，在全美最大城市的中心出现一个仓鸮巢「真的很令人兴奋」。她对《纽约时报》表示，这窝仓鸮的到来是好消息。美国自然历史博物馆鸟类学家兼收藏经理保罗·斯威特则表示，上西区的仓鸮表明，纽约市的一些环境正变得对猛禽更加友好。纽约州位于该物种分布范围的北缘，土地开发已使其栖息地大幅缩减。
专家同时担忧灭鼠药带来的风险：仓鸮以鼠类为食，而纽约市的老鼠常被灭鼠药毒杀，捕食者可能因二次中毒死亡。威尔逊指出，若仓鸮每天吃掉数只老鼠，很可能遭遇这种可怕的死亡。2024年，从中央公园动物园逃逸的雕鸮「弗拉科」撞楼身亡，尸检发现其体内有四种灭鼠药；此后纽约市通过「弗拉科法」，其中包括以避孕方式替代灭鼠药控制鼠群的试点项目。
（资料来源：Smithsonian Magazine，2026-10-13）
Family of Up to Eight Barn Owls Nests in Upper West Side Water Tower, First Known in Manhattan in Modern History
The newest celebrity family in New York City is not a group of Hollywood stars or musicians, but a family of barn owls that have made a water tower on the Upper West Side their home. Since their arrival, birders have been flocking to catch a glimpse of the nocturnal residents. Experts say these barn owls are the first known in modern history to have nested in Manhattan — a welcome event given the species' rapid population decline in New York over the past few decades and how extremely rare the birds are in the city.
As many as eight barn owls — two adults and up to six juveniles — have been spotted at a hole in the water tower, according to CBS News. Upper West Side resident Elisabeth Williams recalls first hearing a series of screeches in September; she and her husband heard the same sound from their apartment patio for weeks and first identified the bird using the Merlin bird ID app. On October 3, Williams finally snapped a photo confirming it was a barn owl, and she named it Scotty. David Barrett, a birder who runs the Manhattan Bird Alert social media account, told CBS News it is a truly special experience that people can come out to a public space and look at the owls at night.
Jessica Wilson, executive director of the NYC Bird Alliance, told CBS News the presence of a nest in the middle of the country's biggest city is really exciting, and she told the New York Times the family's arrival is great news. Paul Sweet, an ornithologist and collection manager at the American Museum of Natural History, said the Upper West Side owls are an indicator that some environments in New York City are becoming more raptor-friendly. The state sits at the northern limit of the species' range, and its habitat has decreased dramatically due to land development.
At the same time, birders and experts worry the owls are at risk of poisoning, because they feast on rodents and rats in New York City are often poisoned by rodenticide. Wilson told CBS News that if barn owls are eating several rats a day, they are likely to fall prey to that secondary poisoning. In 2024, Flaco, the Eurasian eagle-owl that escaped from the Central Park Zoo, died after hitting a building; post-mortem examinations found he had ingested four different types of rodenticide. The city later passed Flaco's Law, which includes a pilot program to curb rat populations using contraceptive methods rather than rodenticide.
(Source: Smithsonian Magazine, October 13, 2026)
图片来源：仓鸮（资料图）。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons · Carlos Delgado 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权
