Pennsylvania Friends Rescue A Struggling Bird, Unaware It’s The Fastest Predator In The World
Two friends were driving down a country road in Pennsylvania when they spotted what looked like a lump in the middle of the street.
As they got closer, they realized it was a hawk, still, quiet, and not moving at all.
Their hearts sank. They quickly pulled over, scooped him up with a blanket, and held him gently in the car, not knowing if he would make it.
The fiends called Tracie Young, a licensed wildlife rehabilitator at Raven Ridge Wildlife Center. For her, calls like this are pretty common.
Injured owls, stunned hawks, confused little songbirds… she’s seen it all. So at first, this one sounded routine.
But as soon as she met the two young women outside, she noticed something that left her speechless. The bird wasn’t a hawk at all. He was a peregrine falcon.
Tracie shared in an interview:
“Right away I spotted the head. I said, ‘That is not a hawk … you’re holding a peregrine falcon.’”
Now, falcons are no ordinary birds. They are the jet planes of the animal world, known for diving at speeds over 200 miles per hour.
Their talons are sharp, their beaks are hooked, and they have a wild fire inside them that makes them different from other raptors.
Tracie knew right away that those two friends were incredibly lucky to be holding such a powerful little predator without getting hurt, sharing:
“That beak could cause more damage than, say, a red tailed hawk or a Cooper’s hawk.”
The bird had probably been clipped by a car, and like many birds of prey who take a hit, he was frozen – awake but dazed.
It was like his mind had pressed pause, as Tracie explained:
“They don’t know what’s going on. They can’t focus … They have their eyes open, but they’re just kind of out of it.”
If he’d snapped out of that daze during the ride, things could’ve gone very wrong.
When Tracie carefully examined him, she realized that he was still young, likely hatched earlier this year.
Instead of flying along cliffs or tall buildings, where falcons normally thrive, this guy had been zipping around cornfields, far from the places his species calls home.
He was a little out of his element, and it had gotten him into trouble. Luckily, he wasn’t badly hurt.
After a few days of rest, pain meds, and plenty of food, his strength came back. Soon, he was eating on his own and stretching those incredible wings in an outdoor enclosure.
What happens next is pretty special. He’ll be heading off to live with a professional falconer for the fall and winter.
Think of it like falcon school where he’ll learn how to hunt, how to survive, and how to embrace the wild instincts that were always inside him.
Once he’s fully prepared, he’ll return to Tracie and her team, who will release him back into the wild, where he can soar freely again.
It’s amazing to think that two friends, just driving down the road, ended up saving one of the fastest animals on Earth. A bird who, with a little help, will soon be diving through the sky again at breathtaking speeds, exactly where he belongs.
