Hawk! Bird Of Prey Seeks Meal At East Village Chicken Joint

Photographs from And I Am Not Lying

We suppose that even hawks get tired of killing their prey—yesterday, D. Billy at And I Am Not Lying wrote that he had a good lunch, "Well… there was this one part where A F***ING HAWK FLEW INTO THE RESTAURANT WHERE I WAS EATING, AND LANDED ON MY FOOD." What follows is an endearing story of shock and awe:

I was sitting at a window seat next to the open door, and my food had just been brought out. I looked down to see this guy (or gal - I don’t know hawks) just standing in the doorway, looking back and forth. After surveying the place for a few seconds, it flapped its way in and up onto one of the empty tables.

The guy working the counter came out, and we were both (slowly and carefully) snapping pictures with our phones. The hawk didn’t react to us apart from turning his head to look back and forth between us — even when said employee said:
“Man, you inna wrong place, bird! Dontchu know this a chicken joint?”

The hawk, whose talons were covered in jerk BBQ sauce while "looking all emo," eventually got spooked when a delivery guy entered and flew into the kitchen: "The counter guy, the delivery guy and I heard a few pots clanging as we debated calling animal control versus just trying to shoo it back out the door, when one of the cooks who was back there caught the hawk with his bare hands, and walked it back outside." Awesome. More awesome: It happened at Birdie's.

There are plenty of hawks and falcons in the city—they help keep the rat population down. A few years ago, Bryant Park put its hawk program (with hawks used to seek rats) on ice because hawks were attacking rat-like dogs.

Update: Here are some pictures of red-tailed hawks in Riverside Park, where, unfortunately, there was no chicken in jerk BBQ sauce.

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By Jen Chung in Food on June 19, 2009 9:40 AM

Comments [rss]

HawksRock

That's a juvenile red-tailed hawk, like Pale Male. There's one in Central Park that keeps crashing into things, so this may be him - he's pretty bedraggled.

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/181/470405874_200d003c73.jpg

Fritzdecat

that was the Bud light raptor...he was just stopping by for Buffalo wings

Spirit of 76

The hawk was still bummed that it couldn't use the KFC coupon for 2 free pieces of chicken.

longacre

If only Canadian Geese came in BBQ flavor.

Clarice City

I was just hawking down some BBQ....

Felix Hoenikker

I can haz your fucking eyeballs, mammal!

NannyState

It even left a tip!

jenryannyc

Actually, that's the waiter.

Think2wice

Raptors completely acclimated to humans and city life and, like bears, may have even acquired a taste for cooked food. Immature and probably very hungry.

I hope we don't come to a point where people go from door to door asking if their neighbors have a pair of falconer's gloves to shoo off the raptor that got in their house.

Amazing story though.

JenChungsBaby

No surprise it was eating chicken. Hawks eat other birds all the time, it's part of their regular diet. Not cooked with BBQ sauce though.

Spirit of 76

Pity there's no video to put on YouTube. They'd be able to add a voiceover with that clipped, high-pitched voice, "You're a chicken and I'm a chickenhawk!"

JMH

Of course, now that this one hawk has experienced the goodness that is jerk BBQ sauce, who knows how many more will come looking for it?

hotstepper

*gasp* eating chicken? the hawk was not vegan! animals are so un-p.c.

Qraymond

this made my day.

r1b2

Hawk's lucky they didn't cook it, given what happens to cats.

I love the image of hawks flying off with rat-like dogs. It's like in a Harryhausen film.

sj

Awesome story. The cook's comments remind me of Tracy Jordan addressing the pigeon eating fries out of the trash can:

"Hey pigeon, eating other peoples' garbage. Have a little self-respect. Don't you know you can fly?"