Manhattan has a new unlikely feathered friend, and she's visiting luxury retailers, dining at high-end restaurants and roosting in Park Avenue's densest, greenest trees.
Known as Astoria, the wild turkey is about as tall as a toddler, with iridescent hues of orange and blue in her brown feathers, an elegant neck, a healthy figure and wings that have helicopter-like strength. Her unusual appearance in Manhattan this week has once again drummed up excitement, bemusement and a growing following of New Yorkers fascinated by the wild fowl's adventures — and concerned for its safety — in the Big Apple.
She has so far eluded capture.
David Barrett, a birder who runs the Manhattan Bird Alert account on X, was out in Central Park with his camera when he received an alert from a birding website after 5 p.m. on Tuesday about a wild turkey sighting in Midtown Manhattan. He headed to the corner of 49th Street and Park Avenue, where he said the bird nestled in a planter outside of Fasano, a high-end Italian restaurant.
Not everyone noticed Astoria: Her brown coloring provides some camouflage amid the shrubs. But she did draw some admirers, eager to document a rare sighting with professional cameras and smartphones. "It's the only turkey we've had in a long time," Mr. Barrett said.
Manhattan is no stranger to celebrity birds. Flaco the Owl roamed free around Manhattan for a year, mostly spending his time in Central Park and capturing the attention of New Yorkers and others, after fleeing the Central Park Zoo. Other famous fowl incl ude Pale Male, a red-tailed hawk, and Barry the barred owl.
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