Virtual Owl Expert Speaker Series
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl, (c) David Lei
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David Lei and Jacqueline Emery, birders, photographers, and authors of "Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City's Beloved Owl"
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Marjon Savelsberg, Dutch Eurasian Eagle Owl researcher
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Lisa Owens-Viani, Raptors Are The Solution, California
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February 2, 2025, 1:00 PM Central Time
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl panel presentation
with David Lei & Jacqueline Emery, Marjon Savelsberg, Lisa Owens-Viani
(bios below)
On February 2, 2023 a vandal cut a hole in Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl's enclosure at the Central Park Zoo in New York. He quickly learned to hunt on his own and resisted all recapture efforts. As he adapted to life in the "wilds" of New York City, he developed an immense following around the US and world. He survived for just over a year before succumbing to rodenticide poisoning and pigeon herpesvirus.
Learn more about the day-to-day details of Flaco's life from David Lei and Jacqueline Emery, birders who followed and photographed him nearly daily and published a book about Flaco; Marjon Savelsberg from The Netherlands, a top expert on Eurasian Eagle Owl vocalizations and behavior; and Lisa Owens-Viani, a strong and successful champion of strict regulations on anticoagulant rodenticides to protect wildlife.
The panel presentation will be about one hour long, with a Q & A session following for up to an additional hour.
There is no charge to attend this webinar, but registration is required to join via Zoom. It will be concurrently livestreamed to the International Owl Center's YouTube channel. This program will be online only and not streamed at the International Owl Center facility.
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl panel presentation
with David Lei & Jacqueline Emery, Marjon Savelsberg, Lisa Owens-Viani
(bios below)
On February 2, 2023 a vandal cut a hole in Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl's enclosure at the Central Park Zoo in New York. He quickly learned to hunt on his own and resisted all recapture efforts. As he adapted to life in the "wilds" of New York City, he developed an immense following around the US and world. He survived for just over a year before succumbing to rodenticide poisoning and pigeon herpesvirus.
Learn more about the day-to-day details of Flaco's life from David Lei and Jacqueline Emery, birders who followed and photographed him nearly daily and published a book about Flaco; Marjon Savelsberg from The Netherlands, a top expert on Eurasian Eagle Owl vocalizations and behavior; and Lisa Owens-Viani, a strong and successful champion of strict regulations on anticoagulant rodenticides to protect wildlife.
The panel presentation will be about one hour long, with a Q & A session following for up to an additional hour.
There is no charge to attend this webinar, but registration is required to join via Zoom. It will be concurrently livestreamed to the International Owl Center's YouTube channel. This program will be online only and not streamed at the International Owl Center facility.
PANELIST BIOS
Jacqueline Emery is a part-time professional wildlife photographer and co-author of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. Her photos have been published by the New York Times, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. She began birding in 2019, and her fascination with owls took flight while photographing Barry the barred owl in Central Park in 2020. Jacqueline is passionate about bird and wildlife conservation. She volunteers with NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit that protects piping plovers and other shorebirds that nest on city beaches. She also supports NYC Bird Alliance and Wild Bird Fund. When she is not with the birds, she teaches literature and chairs the English Department at SUNY Old Westbury. She is editor of the award-winning collection, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2017.
David Lei is a part-time professional wildlife photographer and co-author of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. His photos have been published by the New York Times, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. He started photographing birds and wildlife in 2018 with his first African safari. That safari ignited a new passion that David brought back with him to the parks, rivers, and beaches in New York. David’s spark bird was the snowy owl, and he saw his first when one improbably visited Central Park in early 2021. Today, he is best known for his long exposure night-time photographs of owls in urban environments. David supports New York City Bird Alliance, volunteers with NYC Plover Project, and serves on the board of directors for the Wild Bird Fund. When he is not with the birds, he makes real estate investments globally on behalf of endowments, foundations, pension plans, and other institutional investors.
Marjon Savelsberg never intended to become an owl-researcher...it somehow just happened and it completely changed her life. Marjon is a trained classical professional musician and a special needs teacher, but had to give up these professions due to health issues. That's when she started to watch owls through webcams and became a main cam-observer in Karla Bloem's Great Horned Owl vocalization studies. In 2016 her curiosity drove her to go to a quarry in her hometown where she just wanted to listen to the residing Eurasian Eagle Owls, observe their behaviors and find out if there were similarities between the Great Horned Owls and the Eurasian Eagle Owls vocalization-wise. She had no idea that several years later she would be passionately recording and analyzing Eurasian eagle owl vocalizations and study the associated behaviors. She loves to unravel what goes on by individual vocal recognition and is fascinated by the vocal repertoire of these owls. Marjon often speaks in public about owls and bioacoustics, is a guest lecturer at Maastricht University and was a keynote speaker at the World Owl Conference in 2023. She's currently working on her paper about Eurasian Eagle owl vocalizations.
Lisa Owens Viani, a long time environmental writer and wildlife advocate, co-founded and directs Raptors Are The Solution, a project of Earth Island Institute. She is the recipient of the Fund for Wild Nature’s Grassroots Activist Award (2021), the Elise Roemer Award from the Golden Gate Bird Alliance (2014), and a World Owl Hall of Fame special achievement award from the International Owl Center in Minnesota for her work conserving birds of prey (2018). RATS educates people about the ecological role of raptors and the enormous danger to raptors and all wildlife, as well as pets and children, from the wide use and availability of anticoagulant rat poisons. She has just completed a graphic novel in partnership with an artist to tell the RATS story that will be published later this year.
Jacqueline Emery is a part-time professional wildlife photographer and co-author of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. Her photos have been published by the New York Times, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. She began birding in 2019, and her fascination with owls took flight while photographing Barry the barred owl in Central Park in 2020. Jacqueline is passionate about bird and wildlife conservation. She volunteers with NYC Plover Project, a nonprofit that protects piping plovers and other shorebirds that nest on city beaches. She also supports NYC Bird Alliance and Wild Bird Fund. When she is not with the birds, she teaches literature and chairs the English Department at SUNY Old Westbury. She is editor of the award-winning collection, Recovering Native American Writings in the Boarding School Press, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 2017.
David Lei is a part-time professional wildlife photographer and co-author of Finding Flaco: Our Year with New York City’s Beloved Owl. His photos have been published by the New York Times, Associated Press, and numerous other media outlets. He started photographing birds and wildlife in 2018 with his first African safari. That safari ignited a new passion that David brought back with him to the parks, rivers, and beaches in New York. David’s spark bird was the snowy owl, and he saw his first when one improbably visited Central Park in early 2021. Today, he is best known for his long exposure night-time photographs of owls in urban environments. David supports New York City Bird Alliance, volunteers with NYC Plover Project, and serves on the board of directors for the Wild Bird Fund. When he is not with the birds, he makes real estate investments globally on behalf of endowments, foundations, pension plans, and other institutional investors.
Marjon Savelsberg never intended to become an owl-researcher...it somehow just happened and it completely changed her life. Marjon is a trained classical professional musician and a special needs teacher, but had to give up these professions due to health issues. That's when she started to watch owls through webcams and became a main cam-observer in Karla Bloem's Great Horned Owl vocalization studies. In 2016 her curiosity drove her to go to a quarry in her hometown where she just wanted to listen to the residing Eurasian Eagle Owls, observe their behaviors and find out if there were similarities between the Great Horned Owls and the Eurasian Eagle Owls vocalization-wise. She had no idea that several years later she would be passionately recording and analyzing Eurasian eagle owl vocalizations and study the associated behaviors. She loves to unravel what goes on by individual vocal recognition and is fascinated by the vocal repertoire of these owls. Marjon often speaks in public about owls and bioacoustics, is a guest lecturer at Maastricht University and was a keynote speaker at the World Owl Conference in 2023. She's currently working on her paper about Eurasian Eagle owl vocalizations.
Lisa Owens Viani, a long time environmental writer and wildlife advocate, co-founded and directs Raptors Are The Solution, a project of Earth Island Institute. She is the recipient of the Fund for Wild Nature’s Grassroots Activist Award (2021), the Elise Roemer Award from the Golden Gate Bird Alliance (2014), and a World Owl Hall of Fame special achievement award from the International Owl Center in Minnesota for her work conserving birds of prey (2018). RATS educates people about the ecological role of raptors and the enormous danger to raptors and all wildlife, as well as pets and children, from the wide use and availability of anticoagulant rat poisons. She has just completed a graphic novel in partnership with an artist to tell the RATS story that will be published later this year.
Saved presentations may be viewed on our YouTube channel:
Hedwig: the Snowy Owl that lived, with Dr. Roar Solheim from Norway
Owls in Myth and Culture: a Global Perspective, with David H. Johnson from Virginia, USA
Barred Owls Come to Town: A Nocturnal Predator Thrives in Suburban Habitats, with Rob Bierregaard from Pennsylvania, USA
Owls and Education: Changing owl perceptions in southern Africa, with Jonathan Haw, South Africa
Colours of Grey, with Roar Solheim from Norway
Following Forest Owls: Community science-driven studies of small owl communities in western North American forests, with Dave Oleyar from Idaho, USA
Interspecific competition between owls, raptors and mammalian predators, with Fred and Henk-Jan Koning from The Netherlands
Owl We Need is Love, with Milan Ružić from Serbia
Haunting Hoots of Indian Owls: ELA Foundation Story, with Prof. Dr. Satish A. Pande from India
Neotropical Frequent Flyers: Tracking the long-distance migration and stopover ecology of Flammulated Owls, with Dr. Brian D. Linkhart from Colorado, USA
Owls for Peace, with Alexandre Roulin from Switzerland
The Irruptive Nature of Owls, with J.F. Therrien from USA/Canada
Tracking Burrowing Owls to Determine Conservation Needs in Prairie Canada, with Dr. Geoff Holroyd from Alberta, Canada
Whoo gets hurt by rat poisons?, with Sofi Hindmarch from British Columbia, Canada
The Northern Spotted Owl: Conservation Saga of an Old Forest Icon with Dr. David Wiens, USA
European Owls: made to hunt - Anatomy shaping the variation in hunting behaviours and food processing among owls, with Dr. Arnold van den Burg and Kas Koenraads (The Netherlands)
Burrowing Owls in British Columbia with Lauren Meads (Canada)
Is Spotted Owl conservation a problem or a symptom of a larger issue? with Rocky Gutierrez, California USA
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl Panel Discussion with David Lei, Jacqueline Emery, Marjon Savelsberg and Lisa Owens-Viani (USA & The Netherlands)
Hedwig: the Snowy Owl that lived, with Dr. Roar Solheim from Norway
Owls in Myth and Culture: a Global Perspective, with David H. Johnson from Virginia, USA
Barred Owls Come to Town: A Nocturnal Predator Thrives in Suburban Habitats, with Rob Bierregaard from Pennsylvania, USA
Owls and Education: Changing owl perceptions in southern Africa, with Jonathan Haw, South Africa
Colours of Grey, with Roar Solheim from Norway
Following Forest Owls: Community science-driven studies of small owl communities in western North American forests, with Dave Oleyar from Idaho, USA
Interspecific competition between owls, raptors and mammalian predators, with Fred and Henk-Jan Koning from The Netherlands
Owl We Need is Love, with Milan Ružić from Serbia
Haunting Hoots of Indian Owls: ELA Foundation Story, with Prof. Dr. Satish A. Pande from India
Neotropical Frequent Flyers: Tracking the long-distance migration and stopover ecology of Flammulated Owls, with Dr. Brian D. Linkhart from Colorado, USA
Owls for Peace, with Alexandre Roulin from Switzerland
The Irruptive Nature of Owls, with J.F. Therrien from USA/Canada
Tracking Burrowing Owls to Determine Conservation Needs in Prairie Canada, with Dr. Geoff Holroyd from Alberta, Canada
Whoo gets hurt by rat poisons?, with Sofi Hindmarch from British Columbia, Canada
The Northern Spotted Owl: Conservation Saga of an Old Forest Icon with Dr. David Wiens, USA
European Owls: made to hunt - Anatomy shaping the variation in hunting behaviours and food processing among owls, with Dr. Arnold van den Burg and Kas Koenraads (The Netherlands)
Burrowing Owls in British Columbia with Lauren Meads (Canada)
Is Spotted Owl conservation a problem or a symptom of a larger issue? with Rocky Gutierrez, California USA
Flaco the Eurasian Eagle Owl Panel Discussion with David Lei, Jacqueline Emery, Marjon Savelsberg and Lisa Owens-Viani (USA & The Netherlands)
