Red-tailed hawk flies into window of Upper East Side apartment

UPPER EAST SIDE, Manhattan (WABC) -- A red-tailed hawk flew into a glass window and got wedged in between the panes of glass in a family's apartment on the Upper East Side.

It happened on E. 69th Street Monday afternoon. "He was getting hot; I was concerned about him because he was between two windows," said Lydia Cotter, the homeowner.

Kind of hard not to see the poor guy wedged between two windows like that and not become worried.

The NYPD responded to the scene and placed the hawk into a cage so that Animal Care and Control could evaluate it.

A pretty decent sized crowd stood and watched the hour-long rescue of a red-tailed hawk play out.

"When we were capturing him, his wings went out quite far, so yeah, a big bird and strong in order to break that window," Cotter said.

The NYPD posted this video of their officers freeing the bird from inside of the second floor apartment on East 69th street near Lexington Avenue.

Cotter and her son were both home at the time.

"I didn't see initially what happened, but I heard the glass break," Cotter said.

"When I see him go in the window I ran back and let them know that he was in the house," said Mike McMormack, an eyewitness.

But the hawk was spotted struggling before he crashed landed.

There was cell phone video of it at a parking garage across the street. It then flew on top of a car.

"He landed by the garage, then he flew to the doorman's car parked there, he stood there for a while," said Noel Callado, an eyewitness.

"Somebody walked by and wanted to take a picture and it spooked him and he flew over to the tree, and then another gentleman ran across the street and he spooked him again and that's when he went through the window," McMormack said.

After the bird was evaluated, it was found to be uninjured and it was released at the scene.

The red-tailed hawk was a little reluctant to come out of the cage, but after a little prodding, he strutted his stuff with his wings out on the sidewalk and then took off flying.

"He flew away he was fine, and then my son brought me this," Cotter said referring to a giant feather that the hawk left behind.