A lovelorn wild turkey named Astoria has flown the coop from her home on Roosevelt Island and landed in Manhattan — probably in search of a mate, according to bird experts.
Astoria was first spotted in Manhattan last Sunday, and has dodged traffic, tourists and police in her desperate search for love. But it’s dangerous for a single gal in the big city.
“Astoria is at risk as long as she stays in Manhattan,” said David Barrett of Manhattan Bird Alert, whose @BirdCentralPark X account has been tracking Astoria’s adventures. “People should leave her alone and not call the cops, because attempts to catch her stress her out and could lead to her rushing into traffic.”
It’s currently turkey mating-season, but Astoria is tragically destined to remain single.
“Astoria had been going further south on Roosevelt Island than ever before, making her mating call,” Barrett told The New York Times. “But there aren’t any male wild turkey there, or in Manhattan. So, sadly, like so many single New Yorkers, she’s only going to find disappointment here.”
But Astoria isn’t ready to give up the hunt just yet.
”The NYPD closed off this entire street earlier and spritzed her with water, but they couldn’t catch her,” Manhattan resident Sarah Cheriskin said.
Astoria got her name in 2024 when she first moved to the city, initially settling in Queens before finding her current spot on Roosevelt Island, where, for her own safety, she will hopefully return soon — of her own accord.
She was last spotted resting in an Upper East Side garden.
Astoria’s dating plight mirrors a bit that of Flaco, New York City’s late famed Eurasian eagle-owl, who escaped from the Central Park Zoo in early 2023 and lived free in Manhattan for a year before fatally crashing into a building on the Upper West Side. Although Flaco flapped around the borough hooting up a storm — in what was believed to be a search for a mate — he was the sole owl of his species in the wild in North America.
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