A massive hawk became lodged in the front grille of a car in Northern California and miraculously survived a 200 mile trek before the driver discovered it when pulling over for gas.
The Weed Police Department said on Sunday that dispatch received a call about a driver at a Chevron gas station in Weed who found a bird stuck in the grille of their car.
“When the call came in I told them well just remove it, thinking it was a sparrow, the caller said no it’s an eagle. So I said don’t touch it and will send officers out,” Weed Police dispatch told The California Post.
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife responded to the scene where they miraculously managed to get the bird — identified as a juvenile red-tailed hawk — safely out of the vehicle, with officials saying the bird’s wings were intact, per the ABC10 report.
Incredible video shows the rescue and how officers carefully worked to free the bird, getting the wings out.
The police department said the hawk was struck at the I-5 and the 505 interchange near Dunnigan and traveled all the way to the small town — lodged in the car — before it was discovered, a nearly 3 hour long trek.
One witness said she saw the commotion at the gas station and feared the worst when she approached the car.
“I walked up to the car kind of thinking the worst, but the bird itself was very calm and trusting,” Wendy Wertenberger told the outlet.
“They managed to kind of dislodge the wing from the grille of the car and then very gently put it into a box.”
“I thought for sure it was a goner, but it was blinking and looking around calmly,” she added in her post on Facebook.
The young hawk is now undergoing treatment at a wildlife rehabilitation facility, per the report.
Officials told the outlet that the hawk amazingly didn’t have any broken bones on its legs or wings and that it was only suffering from mild swelling from the impact of hitting the car.
CDFW officials said the bird’s prognosis is good.
The California Post reached out to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for more information.
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