Video: Hawk in Midtown Draws a Sympathetic Crowd

If only the trapped rat had gotten this kind of attention from passers-by. Vimeo user "timmmyk" says he was walking to the subway yesterday evening when he "noticed a large group of concerned people standing around a sick hawk on top of a FedEx van on 48th St. between 5th/Madison. I was among a number of people who called 311 for animal control to rescue this beautiful majestic creature. As the bird flew to a higher perch on a UPS truck it glanced my right ear with its wing. Is that good luck?"

We think it may in fact be providential, Timmmy, unless the hawk had a communicable disease. New York Animal Care & Control tells us a supervisor was dispatched to the scene to rescue the hawk, but it flew away and may in fact have been healthy. Apparently, Animal Care & Control gets these kinds of calls about hawks "all the time" in midtown, where hawks are quite common and known to snatch up rats and even pigeons for food. We're assured there have not been any instances of hawks swooping down and taking away small children... at least, not yet. But they will take your lunch!