NEW YORK -- A peacock that escaped from New York City's Central Park Zoo and spent nearly 18 hours perched on a window high above Fifth Avenue flew home early Wednesday, MyFoxNY.com reports.
"Our staff monitored the bird through the night, and at 6:45am, he flew back on his own," the zoo's director, Jeff Sailer, said in a statement.
The peacock was subsequently "secured in an aviary," according to the statement.
The bird escaped around 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday. He drew about 100 onlookers Tuesday afternoon as he remained perched on a fifth-floor window at a building near East 65th Street and Fifth Avenue.
Kate Spence, 29, a teacher from Vancouver, told the New York Post, "We expect to see a lot of things in New York City, but not this!"
The escaped bird quickly spawned a satirical Twitter account, where the poster wrote in one tweet, "Anyone know where I can find some good flower petals? My escape fight made me ravenous!"
Zoo officials had hoped the peacock would fly home of his own accord and did not attempt to capture him. "A thorough understanding of the peacock's natural behavior allowed for the successful planning of its recovery," the statement read.
The peacock's flight of fancy was the third high-profile escape from a New York zoo this year.
In April, a female Egyptian cobra escaped from the Bronx Zoo and remained missing for six days before she was captured.
When the zoo's pet detectives finally caught up to the pencil-thin, 20-inch adolescent female, they found her curled up in a secluded, dark corner of a non-public area of the reptile house.
In May, a peahen escaped from the Bronx Zoo but was eventually caught in a garage.
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