A man in Georgia was driving to her daughter’s home when he noticed something had hit his car mid-drive. When he checked, he found that a bird had somehow gotten trapped in his pickup truck’s front grille. Fortunately, the animal was not trapped for long.
Janie Robyck shared the bird-meets-truck incident on TikTok. She is a lifestyle content creator who often shares vlogs featuring her family. The clip attached above quickly went viral, garnering 1.4 million views, 149,700 likes, and more than 800 comments in a day.
The Georgia woman explained what had occurred with her father’s truck, a Toyota Tundra. According to her, while on the highway, the bird, a hawk, struck his vehicle. Somehow, the bird survived, but it managed to isolate itself inside the truck’s front grille.
So when he arrived at his daughter’s home 50 miles later, everyone took matters into their own hands and tried to free the hawk.
Grille Rescue
While Janie’s father and possibly her husband worked to get the grille out or make space for the hawk to get out, she worried about the bird’s hydration. With the help of a syringe, she tried to do so, and the bird seemed to take it. However, many pointed out that giving water to birds this way can cause the animal to aspirate and even drown.
Still, the bird appeared to be okay, as Janie tried to soothe it in what was arguably a stressful scenario. Then, with the help of a stick, the Georgia woman pushed the bird upward. Moments later, the animal successfully exited its impromptu enclosure.
Janie cried “Oh my gosh” and “Holy [expletive]” while her father assessed that the bird had possibly broken one of its wings. Moments later, now on the ground, he corrected himself, saying that the hawk’s wings seemed fine and that perhaps it was only dehydrated.
Reactions
The video sparked multiple responses, some of them lighthearted. One said, referring to the bird, “I think he’s having an existential crisis.” Similarly, another one commented, “He’s waiting for your insurance information.”
Others criticized Janie’s attempt to give water to the hawk. One wrote, “Please don’t ever shoot water down an open bird’s mouth.” Janie asked similar commenters to “chill“, as she “didn’t know” about the dangers of giving water to a bird.
According to one of Janie’s comments, the bird spent several hours in her yard. In a follow-up, she said she couldn’t reach any rescuers, so for now, the hawk will remain in her care.
