An injured hawk now owes his life to the city’s Bravest, as well as its Finest.
Firefighters rescued the red-tailed hawk from a construction site near the World Trade Center on Monday afternoon, just one day after NYPD members plucked him from a soggy perch under the Brooklyn Bridge.
“He doesn’t appear injured but he’s too weak to hunt,” said Bobby Horvath, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator and city firefighter who is caring for the bird. “We’re giving him pain medication and will bring him to the veterinarian.”
Construction workers saw the majestic bird and knocked on the door of FDNY Engine 10/Ladder 10, known as the 10 House, on Liberty St. in lower Manhattan.
Lt. Santo Bevinetto admitted he wasn’t sure how to approach the hawk, so he called Horvath for advice.
“I trust Bobby,” he said. “He told me to come from behind and put a blanket over him and have a box ready.”
The young hawk flew about 100 feet in the air before he crashed to the ground. Bevinetto, 42, wrapped up the confused bird of prey and kept him safe in a large box until Horvath arrived.
“It was exciting,” Bevinetto, a 15-year veteran, said of his close encounter with the hawk. “This isn’t something we get to do every day.”
Horvath said the hawk seemed thin and was loaded with parasites. He planned to fatten him up with a diet of diced rodents.
“He’s not strong enough to catch his own food — he can fly but not with the sharpness necessary,” he said. But with a wing and a prayer, the hawk could be released as early as next week.
