Thursday, August 25th, 2011

Follow-up on the red-tailed hawk theme started by last night’s photo of one of them devouring a pigeon… a different hawk (perhaps the mother) managed to find her way into an Upper West Side apartment building over the weekend.

The Daily News reports the bird apparently flew into a walk-up on West 80th through an open window. Tenant Joe Moderski found the bird outside his apartment when he returned around 3:30 p.m.

“I thought I missed a pillow fight in the hallway or something,” Moderski said. “There were feathers everywhere.”

The Post also covered the story, and Moderski told them “I freaked out. Its claws were huge.” After the initial contact, the hawk flew at him, missing his face by inches. “I turned around and ran,” he said.

In what must have resembled a bad Laurel & Hardy film, police spent the next half-hour trying to ” to coax the carnivore out with breadcrumbs.” It didn’t work.

Two Emergency Service officers finally caught it and took it to the city’s Animal Care and Control center.

After being held for observation, the hawk was deemed fit for release on Monday, and NBC-NY has the video:

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Tags: Joe Moderski, New York City, NYC, Red-Tailed Hawks, Upper West Side, UWS