A sandhill crane that couldn't eat because a piece of plastic was wedged on its beak is on the mend after getting a helping hand from a group of suburban Chicago volunteers.
Shana Conner, a volunteer with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors, helped rescue the crane Friday after getting a call on Thanksgiving that the troubled bird had been seen in Rogers Park.
“I was worried about this bird all night because I was like ‘it’s going to starve to death, and I couldn’t find it,’” Conner told the Chicago Sun-Times.
After the crane was spotted Friday by alert neighbors in nearby Evanston, Conner rushed to the scene while two other volunteers tried to capture the bird.
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Scott Judd, one of those volunteers, said the crane didn't give up without a struggle. But they finally netted it and Conner pulled the plastic piece from its beak. The bird was then placed in a cage and soon laid down.
"It was exhausted; it probably hadn’t eaten in days," Judd said.
The bird was taken to the Willowbrook Wildlife Hospital for treatment and was being treated Sunday for emaciation and beak wounds.
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Judd suspects that the crane was among some 20,000 sandhill cranes he witnessed flying over Chicago on Nov. 22 on their way to warmer climates.
