New Yorkers mourn death of Flaco, America’s first ‘celebrity owl’ | Digested week

Reaction to beloved bird's demise typifies the eccentricity and warmth of the city

The death of Flaco the owl, erstwhile symbol of New York, beloved avian icon, and brief good news item in a sea of grim tidings, continues to reverberate two days after he suffered the most urban of fates and flew into the side of a building on the city's Upper West Side. He was found late on Friday night, dead on the sidewalk, a few blocks from Central Park.