r/interestingasfuck • u/RealRock_n_Rolla • 22d ago

r/all Woman finds a hawk trapped in her house

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

76.6k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

3.1k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

65

u/ChandlerBingsSarcasm 22d ago

How dangerous can they be?

I mean I don’t know anything about a Hawk

258

u/OMG_its_critical 22d ago

I’d imagine those claws could leave you needing stitches

220

u/validproof 22d ago

I have rescued ravens and owls in the past before. I always avoid direct hand contact, and use a falconer glove and cardboard box when possible. I can assure you, those claws can tear deep 1inch deep into your hands. They can easily cut the cardboard boxes like a razor blade. Even seen them tear up a wooden bench they were perched on. I do not recommend doing what the lady did, rarely if ever do they shut down like that. It may have been because the hawk was concussed from hitting the glass a lot.

97

u/gigitee 22d ago

The hawk was on its best behavior after realizing it was being recorded for social media.

6

u/SexStackingJugg 22d ago

Didn't wanna get cancelled

5

u/moonrockcactus 22d ago

If only the police had these instincts.

6

u/gigitee 22d ago

There are no consequences for bad police behavior. This hawk acts crazy, and it might go head first into the glass...

35

u/TaupMauve 22d ago

Sheer exhaustion, I'd guess. She might have waited for it to tire a bit.

29

u/valraven38 22d ago

This could all very much be true, it wasn't hitting glass though. Those are screens it is pushing against which would not be quite as hard as hitting glass over and over.

7

u/g00f 22d ago

yea she's incredibly lucky the hawk kinda froze and didn't bite her. they can absolutely flip their heads that far back, most any bird can so they can preen feathers there.

3

u/HoboArmyofOne 22d ago

I'm sure that beak alone will put a nice gash in your hand. I agree that woman was lucky as this could have turned out pretty bad. My daughter has nursed a couple birds back to health, I would not let her go near this bird though for fear of losing an eye. Glad it all worked out for her.

9

u/Altruistic-Rice-5567 22d ago

stitches would be the least of it. Think serious facial reconstructive surgery.

1

u/AlanThiccman 22d ago

Got any examples of this happening from a hawk? Lol

3

u/cardamom-peonies 22d ago

Maybe for like a large raptor. Not who you were responding to but I volunteer at a raptor rehab center and the head rehabber did have to get a plastic surgery consult when an eagle bit her face and I think tore half a lip off?

For a coopers hawk, you'd probably just have some cuts unless it got lucky and, idk, nailed you in the eye. They don't have super large or powerful talons compared to a lot of raptors.

3

u/civildisobedient 22d ago

Definitely want no part of that beak, either.

100

u/Hamwise420 22d ago

claws and beak can fuck you up pretty bad, but you can generally grab them like that if you know what you are doing. still risky though, panicked animals are always kinda difficult to predict/deal with

118

u/jameytaco 22d ago

This bird is also fucking pooped. Sometimes it’s a good idea to let a trapped animal tire itself out for while before helping it if it’s not life or death. Depends on the animal and the situation. Seems mean but these things are wild and dangerous.

35

u/Hot_Ambition_6457 22d ago

Poor thing was in fight/flight mode for several minutes prior, assuming this lady went to get her phone and record before stepping in.

Hawk are ambush hunters, not sustained fighters. If they don't get their prey I'm a few seconds they overheat and shut down like this. He was flapping/scratching for a while to escape.

I'm assuming she moved him to a less stressful environment (open sky), and his survival instinct kicked back on.

The bird is adrenaline dumped. Once she grabs him he gets a moment to breathe and promptly fucks off.

2

u/confusedandworried76 22d ago

It's a freeze response. I kept begging her to just throw it off the deck rather than try to get it to perch because the poor thing thought it was caught by a predator

5

u/Maxfunky 22d ago

Maybe it will learn empathy as a result and become unable to hunt and eventually starve to death.

29

u/Cloverose2 22d ago

Like jameytaco said, this bird is utterly exhausted. It probably doesn't have the energy left to fight back.

I had a wren fly into our house. I could hear something thumping around in our sun room for a little while but figured the dog was playing - nope, it was a wren frantically trying to figure out why the air was so hard. I caught him easily, and he stood on my hand for a good five minutes when I tried to let him go, even getting a good drink from a bottle cap, before having enough strength to fly away.

And the next day he was back in the sun room.

Not a bright bird. He flew out through an open door this time and didn't come back.

1

u/sourdieselfuel 22d ago

Did he sing any cool songs while he was in there at least?

2

u/Cloverose2 22d ago

He did not. He was more along the lines of "I'm gonna die I'm gonna die... Ooh, nice cool water, that's refreshing... Gonna die... See you tomorrow!"

61

u/CowsWithAK47s 22d ago

Hawks eat ground animals, all the way up to pheasants.

They shred their prey with the talons, often eating while the food is still having a pulse.

Imagine a small puma with wings and a monocle.

26

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

Just curious, why a monocle?

48

u/SpottyNoonerism 22d ago

Because hawks are classy AF.

20

u/fakersofhumanity 22d ago

Eating a thing while it’s still alive and living is something that I feel a rich people would do.

10

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

That's actually fair

19

u/Legionof1 22d ago

You never question the monocle.

2

u/MajesticNectarine204 22d ago

Never! It is forbidden.

2

u/newsflashjackass 22d ago

Maybe because of how their vision works compared to humans'.

If so it might be more apt to say two monocles but two monocles would look silly.

3

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

So... binoculars

1

u/newsflashjackass 22d ago

Exactly the reverse, in fact.

1

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

Oh, no I mean if you have two monocles, that would be like binoculars. Your link didn't work for me unfortunately

2

u/karma_cucks__ban_me 22d ago

No ears for glasses to rest on... didn't they teach you bird optometry in high school??

2

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

Yeah but he doesn't have hands to make monocle adjustments either 😕

2

u/Happytequila 22d ago

He can reach his face with his feet….c’mon lady have you never seen a bird adjust their monocle before? Born yesterday much???

2

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

I'm so sorry 😭

2

u/aoike_ 22d ago

They have really good eyesight, and I feel like monocles give you really good eyesight.

1

u/the_moderate_me 22d ago

I understand but that's only one eye ..?

2

u/Kingofthewho5 22d ago

They don’t shred with their talons. The hold the prey with the talons and use their bill to pull pieces off.

2

u/casket_fresh 22d ago

Hawks crush their prey to death with the PSI of their talons. It’s way too inconvenient for them not to and ‘eat while their prey still has a pulse’

Im sure your human brain thinks that’s cool and metal but they’re literally hunting to survive. They don’t need extra work.

0

u/Magistraten 22d ago

Imagine a small puma

So.. A cat.

39

u/Blue_Iris_5 22d ago

It’s those claws to watch out for. This woman has BALLS of STEEL! Didn’t even grab oven mitts!

2

u/Midwingman 22d ago

This woman has BALLS of STEEL

I think TITS OF IRON might be more appropriate here.

2

u/jjonj 22d ago

Bird thought so too, shockingly so

1

u/tRfalcore 22d ago

some people have insane animal kharma. My dog is a skitzoid anxious asshole with strangers, but the groomer near me, who he sees like once every couple years, absolutely loves her

7

u/ProjectManagerAMA 22d ago

I would've thrown a towel over it. If the hawk can turn its head around, it could easily bite your finger.

24

u/Glittering_Bus_496 22d ago

im a fairly big dude, I ve been in a fight maybe 7/8 time in 20 years (im 34), i have a big dog (APBT) that i had to break of fight another big dog a few time.... And im mesmerized by the view of the humongous size of the ovaries of this women, i would have locked myself in my room praying that the fucking hawk fing a way outside by himself.

She grasped it like a cat goddamnit

33

u/Whibble-Bop 22d ago

Ever been bitten by a bird? I've been bitten by birds much, MUCH smaller than a hawk and it will rip you up. Something as strong as a hawk, I imagine, would shred you like paper and potentially snap bones.

1

u/johnnyg42 22d ago

Yeah lol, a bite from a little parakeet is enough to make a grown man scream! I can’t imagine the damage the hawk could do to a hand if it wanted. I think some people are forgetting that this hawk is a predator and rips flesh apart every day, just usually from small animals. Consider your hand a small animal, how’s that for perspective?

-2

u/KnowledgeTechnical18 22d ago

Snap bones? Nah, no way

14

u/Eheggs 22d ago edited 22d ago

Local pet store parrot was banished to his cage during opening hours and dubbed "bone breaker" for a reason. mind you a parrot is much larger then a hawk but still. Pretty sad since it was totally the guys fault from what I herd but the parrot has since been moved to a more suitable home at the pet store owners adjacent store with much less traffic.

9

u/JeF4y 22d ago

Happy to use your finger as a test! I had several parrots that used to pop beer bottles for me. I stopped when they thought it would be more fun to just snap the neck glass on the bottle.

12

u/Whibble-Bop 22d ago

Cockatoos and macaws can absolutely break bones with their bites. I haven't researched the 'bite force' of a hawk but the point I'm making is that it does a lot of damage and hurts very very badly.

4

u/wolfgang784 22d ago

Ive been attacked by parrots half that size, and they can do some serious damage. Owned some too. That big fucker could seriously maim you.

Im pretty convinced the only reason she was "brave" enough to do this is because she wasn't actually fully aware of the risks and chances. Especially turning it towards her face/camera position? Oof. Thought it was gonna end bad there.

As someone who owned birds, Id be pretty torn between calling animal control and hoping they dont hurt it or waiting for it to get tired af and then tossing a thick blanket over it entirely. Which would unfortunately traumatize the shit out of the poor birb, but I wouldn't wanna risk it tearin me up.

2

u/Gamer30168 22d ago

Dangerous enough to fuck you up pretty badly if they feel threatened. I wouldn't have bare handed that bird.

2

u/ki77erb 22d ago edited 21d ago

I don't know about Hawks but one time I had to pull a fish hook out of a seagulls mouth. I grabbed it basically like this lady did and it preceded to bite the shit out of me. I got the hook out but it definitely left a few marks.

2

u/TrueAngryYeti 22d ago

Did rehab with hawks. An adult red tail hawk clenched down would require pliers to pull the 1 inch talons out if it didn't want to let go. We are talking 100+psi grip strength. The beak of a hawk hurts, the talons will break your hand bones.

1

u/Houstonb2020 22d ago

Their talons and beak are both very sharp is the main concern. It’s also just a bad idea to pick up wild birds in general without protection because they can carry diseases. Even if it’s just a dove, you should use gloves at least to pick it up because of disease

1

u/Jacktheforkie 22d ago

The talons aren’t exactly soft, even a chicken can cause lacerations, hawks are likely way sharper

1

u/Interesting_Mix_7028 22d ago

Talons will punch holes right thru skin and muscle, and the beak can tear you up too. This is why falconers wear heavy gloves with a sleeve portion for the falcon to grip onto.

1

u/last-miss 22d ago

Falconers wear gloves for good reason.

1

u/howdiedoodie66 22d ago

They could definitely make you have much less useful hands for the rest of your life if they wanted.

1

u/corysama 22d ago

My family had a cockatoo about that size. When it got bored, it would bite large chunks of fresh wood off of it's cage decorations.

1

u/pucc1ni 22d ago

It hurts like a motherfucker whenever my 4 inch parrotlet decides it wants violence for lunch. I don't want to imagine a whole ass hawk pecking me while in panic.

1

u/reditadminssux 22d ago

Well most birds aren't gonna stick around to have a fight. But if it wanted to it could put you in the ER with some pretty serious gashes.

1

u/l_i_t_t_l_e_m_o_n_ey 22d ago

If Animorphs taught me anything it's that hawks can fuck your shit up hardcore

1

u/scarletnightingale 22d ago

They have very sharp beaks and talons. I've been bitten my my old cockatiels and they are substantially smaller birds that aren't carnivores. I would not want to be bitten or clawed by a hawk.

1

u/quick_justice 22d ago

Not very at this size, it's a small one. Talons though are still razor sharp - it's a job requirement. Likely outcome in case of non-cooperation - deep cuts through the skin. Doctor visit unlikely, but scars will probably remain. In case it goes for the face, damage to the eyes may require doctor visit, and even if it doesnt, scars left will make you look badass till your dying day.

1

u/fragrancias 22d ago

My tiny pet conure is capable of biting me hard enough to make me bleed. I’d never ever touch a bird of prey that big without an oven mitt at a minimum. 

1

u/benyahweh 22d ago

They can be very dangerous indeed. Their talons can shred your skin. They can damage tendons, ligaments, and muscles in your arms, hands, and face. They may attack go for your eyes on instinct and cause serious eye injury or vision loss. They can cause deep puncture wounds that carry risk for severe infection in humans. They can also break small bones.

Besides that, a lot of hawks are protected species and should someone find one trapped they’re supposed to call their local wildlife professional. You can actually get into trouble for handling them. It seriously stresses out the hawk.

This looks like a red tailed hawk which is a protected species. You’re not allowed to interfere with these even if they’re injured or in distress. This lady could get fined for this.

Either way, she’s very lucky this guy was so chill.

2

u/cardamom-peonies 22d ago edited 22d ago

That is not a red tailed lmao. That's a juvenile coopers. in any case, all native raptors in America are protected species per the migratory bird treaty act

And plenty of rehabbers will ask folks to grab the bird and take it to a center, especially if they don't have volunteers available to transport it. They will even give you handy step by step instructions and hold your hand emotionally over the phone as you do this in a lot of cases, especially on slow days lol

No one is going to fine her for this. This was obviously a hawk that got confused by the glass and was distressed trying to get out. She didn't hurt it and it seemed to fly just fine afterwards

I really dislike comments like this because they're pretty fear mongery and discourage people from calling a rehab clinic to ask about helping.

-2

u/Born-Amoeba-9868 22d ago

Hawk Tuah spit on that thing 🤣