You can't keep a good hawk down.
Cabdriver William Bruso who dubbed the female Cooper's hawk "Harvey the Hurricane Hawk," was among the bird's rescuers who released the bird after rehabilitation.
Harvey the Hurricane Hawk flew into Bruso's cab and refused to leave as Hurricane Harvey closed in on Aug. 25.
The cabbie shared videos of the hawk on social media that quickly went viral and provided shelter for the bird at his home until a local animal rehabilitator retrieved the hawk Saturday, just before storms from Hurricane Harvey got stronger.
"If he wouldn't have taken the bird in, it wouldn't have survived," Liz Compton, rehabilitation coordinator for the TWRC Wildlife Center in Houston, told the Tribune-Review.
The cabbie's good rapport with the bird might have had something to do with hawk's likely injuries, she said.
"People assume when an animal is acting tame that it is 'friendly,' but oftentimes, that animal is likely dehydrated, hasn't eaten in a week and is injured," she said.
Regardless of the reason for the bonding between Bruso and the hawk, Compton said, "We are grateful that he saved that bird."
Compton says the hawk couldn't fly because of head trauma, probably from flying into something.
After a week and a half of treatment by Compton, the hawk was taken to a center near Dallas for exercise before being released.
A spokesman for the Dallas suburb of Plano says she was released in a park there Wednesday.
Associated Press contributed.
Mary Ann Thomas is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach her at 724-226-4691, mthomas@tribweb.com or via Twitter @MaThomas_Trib.
