A crow was stuck dangling from a tree at Owen Beach. Watch video of the rescue mission

After a crow was spotted dangling from a fallen tree at Owen Beach, an ad-hoc rescue team stepped in to try and save it.

Alex Holmes, park guide with Metro Parks Tacoma, got a call to help the effort at Point Defiance Park, 5400 N. Pearl St. Holmes told The News Tribune that the crow was tangled up in some fishing line Sunday and was hanging from a tree roughly 25 feet above the ground.

A crew composed of Holmes, a security guard, a maintenance laborer and a member of the public attempted to get the bird down with a pruning saw. At one point members of the team climbed on a Gator utility vehicle to get some added height, Holmes said.

The line had been caught around the crow’s feet and part of one of its wings, Holmes said. Once the bird was lowered, the group checked for signs of obvious broken bones and other damage.

“So, we set it down. It wasn’t moving,” Holmes said. “It was pretty, I would say, traumatized.”

In video of the ordeal, Holmes works to free the bird from the fishing line as waves lap onto the shore behind him. The moment the crow was carefully cut from the tree was also captured on film.

“He got him,” one man can be heard saying in the footage. “All right. One happy crow.”

Next the juvenile crow was placed in a box with some rags for padding, and it was carted off to the PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Snohomish, Holmes said.

Emily Meredith, manager of PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation, told The News Tribune via email that the bird was an American crow. Its leg suffered a “swollen joint with some tissue damage,” and it is being administered pain and anti-inflammatory medications, she said.

It might take up to a week to learn the full extent of the injury, she said. The damage could jeopardize the bird’s ability to use its leg.

“If the bird does recover, they will continue to be raised with other juvenile crows and will be released into the wild with their new family of crows,” Meredith said.

It’s important for fishermen to throw away their lines the correct way instead of leaving them lying around, Holmes added.

“The thing I really want to emphasize is that I don’t think we really could have done it without the members of the public that kind of helped out with it,” Holmes said. “It was in a really tough spot, and it was pretty sad seeing it out there. It’s a very preventable situation.”