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Malnourished Baby Hawk Named McCallister May Not Survive

By Rosa Goldensohn | February 26, 2015 11:33am | Updated on February 26, 2015 1:55pm
 NYPD Officer Brian McCallister helped bring the red-tailed hawk to safety.
NYPD Officer Brian McCallister helped bring the red-tailed hawk to safety.
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DNAinfo/Rosa Goldensohn

MIDTOWN — A malnourished, dehydrated baby hawk who was named McCallister after the NYPD officer who helped to save him may be too sick to survive, the officer and experts say. 

Rita McMahon of the Wild Bird Fund said McCallister arrived "at death's door," half the weight the year-old bird should be. 

"Right now he’s a very quiet guy, not doing much," she said. 

City hawks typically eat rats, pigeons and squirrels but the young hawk cannot eat solid food yet and is being treated with electrolytes. "Those minerals need to get back in or he will just die."

Officer Brian McCallister and two other police officers responded to a call about the red-tailed hawk Wednesday morning, McCallister said.

The hawk, a male, was lying down and not moving outside Rue 57 at West 57th Street and Sixth Avenue, witnesses said. He was taken to the Wild Bird Fund near Columbus Circle, where he is under McMahon's care. 

McMahon said young hawks often struggle to thrive during the cold weather season and extremes caused by global warming can be especially dangerous for them. 

If McCallister the hawk survives the next few days, he will be taken to The Raptor Trust in Millington, N.J., where he would be put into a larger cage to get in "flying fit form," McMahon said.

While the little hawk looks "sweet" right now, McMahon is hoping to revive and toughen up the bird.

"We want him to look fierce," she added.

Scott D'Esposito, the sous-chef at Rue 57 and a bird lover, was one of the first people to spot the hawk "holed up" in an alcove outside the restaurant, he said. 

"His body faced up against the door and his head was turned backwards," D'Esposito said. "No structure, no strength, no nothing."

D'Esposito, 47, of East Elmhurst, had recently attended an Eagle Fest in Westchester and called the ASPCA as soon as he saw the large bird. 

"I was amazed to see it," he said.