Faneuil Hall Marketplace is where one wild thing is

An owl has made the shopping and dining district its hooting grounds for the past month. The creature fits right in at the popular tourist destination - people-watching, sampling the local fare, and even recently checking out the mall’s new 87-foot Christmas tree.

“He’s very friendly,’’ said Rebecca Stoddard, marketing director for the mall. “He floats around and oversees everything. You can see his head moving as he actually watches everyone go by.’’

The barred owl was first spotted in a tree near the North Market building in mid-October. Security officers and merchants took note, thinking the owl was a one-day novelty. But it kept coming back.

“It’s around a lot in the morning, going from tree to tree. It’s been here for about a month now,’’ said Carol Troxell, a marketplace business owner and president of the merchants association. “It’s really a marketplace favorite. You stop and look at it, and before you know it there’s a good crowd around.’’

When workers propped up a Norwegian spruce on the plaza last week, the owl took notice. On Tuesday, it perched about 15 feet up the tree and supervised the workers as they strung lights.

“It seemed the owl had come to pay us a visit,’’ said John Egan, owner of the New York tree farm that is installing and decorating the tree. “He flew in, sat on the branch, and watched.’’

Egan’s son, James, said he worked about 5 feet from the owl for nearly an hour, before realizing it was there.

Owls and other predatory birds such as hawks and falcons are known to settle in Boston at times, said Chris Leahy, a bird specialist with the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Red-tailed hawks have nested at Fenway Park and snowy owls often winter at Logan Airport.

“It’s a striking phenomenon, but it’s not particularly unusual,’’ said Leahy, noting that the raptors feed on the city’s rodent population.

“They’ve figured out that cities are actually a really good place to make a living,’’ he said.

Tom French, assistant director of MassWildlife, said the marketplace’s owl, of a breed that can grow to 14 inches tall with a 3-foot wingspan, is probably a youngster, marked with brown and white breast stripes.

“Barred owls that were born this summer disperse, and sometimes have no particular place to go. They get confused,’’ he said. “But this guy is just visiting. He won’t be there in the spring.’’

In the meantime, the marketplace community has adopted the owl.

“Everyone has a different name. The management calls him ‘Fanowl,’ like Faneuil Hall; merchants call her ‘Holly,’ ’’ Stoddard said. “But ‘Hooter’ is the consensus.’’