Great job by #NYPD ESU Det. Stefanakos & Det. Binder rescuing a bird that wandered onto the subway tracks. The young Crane was safely removed from the #7 line train tracks above Roosevelt Ave in Queens. The Crane was transported to @NYCACC in Manhattan. pic.twitter.com/j7Q1fZDpWf
— NYPD Special Ops (@NYPDSpecialops) September 2, 2018
Geese in Queens have been known to bring down jumbo jets — but on Sunday, another wayward waterfowl, this time a cormorant, scored its first subway train.
The unlikely “bird strike” caused an eight-minute delay on the 7 line in Corona, an MTA spokesman said.
The sleek, brown diving bird landed on the elevated track at the 111 Street station just before 1 p.m., said the spokesman, Shams Tarek.
It was quickly netted and removed by NYPD Emergency Services Unit officers, who transferred it to a cardboard box and drove it to Animal Care and Control.
“Great job by #NYPD ESU Det. Stefanakos & Det. Binder rescuing a bird that wandered onto the subway tracks,” NYPD Special Ops tweeted.
“The young Crane was safely removed,” added the tweet, which was evidently informed by the expertise of law enforcement professionals with minimal ornithology training.
The bird, actually a juvenile cormorant, landed about six blocks south of Flushing Bay — but it was probably sick, not lost, said expert Rita McMahon.
“Any cormorant found far from the water is not in good shape,” said McMahon, the executive director of the Wild Bird Fund on the Upper West Side, where the bird will likely be rehabbed.
“Often these birds will swallow a fishing hook — attached to a fish. That’s the worst that happens to them,” she said.
“We’ll give him subcutaneous fluid, and if he survives that, take it from there.
“I’m happy to hear he was animated,” she added of the bird, which resisted being taken into custody.
If it winds up at Wild Bird Fund, it will have at least one Queens neighbor to keep it company: a swan rescued from Kissena Park.
“Someone poured oil on her,” McMahon said. “Terrible.”
The subways can be quite an exotic zoo, indigenous rats aside.
Earlier this month, two goats were rescued from the N train tracks in Borough Park, Brooklyn.
Cat rescues are more frequent. Recent incidents include a feline that played cat-and-mouse with transit workers for two weeks in Prospect Park, Brooklyn, last November, and one that briefly snarled Midtown’s 7 train traffic in October 2016.
Additional reporting by Ellis Kaplan
