Man Films Rescue of Injured Hawk in Upper West Side Park

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — A blogger with a love of birds filmed himself rescuing an injured red-tailed hawk in an Upper West Side park. The hawk was found sitting on top of a rock in Thelonius Monk Cirlce — a small green space near West End Avenue and West 63rd Street, according to the blogger.

The bird-lover — who goes by the online alias yojimbot — said that the bird suffered an injury to its right wing and had rat bites on its feet, according to a blog post. The hawk could barely fly due to the injury to its wing, which may have been hurt while chasing prey in the notably rat-infested park.

In yojimbot's video he can be heard consoling the hawk, repeating "I'll help ya," before stunning it with a towel, grabbing it with two heavily-gloved hands and placing it into a box. The blogger said that he brought the injured bird of prey to Animal Medical Center on East 62nd Street and York Avenue, and that it will be rehabbed by a group called Wildlife In Need of Rescue and Rehabilitation.

The blogger claimed that the winter months can be treacherous for young hawks living in the big city and that this season a hawk is rescued nearly every day due to starvation, parasites or secondary poisoning. Secondary poisoning is caused when a hawk eats a rat that has ingested rat poison.

Screengrab of video posted by yojimbot