Beautiful pink spoonbill tangled in fishing line rescued by Florida locals

Good Samaritans save bird

FOX 13’s Jordan Bowen reports on several people working to free a roseate spoonbill bird tangled in a fishing line on Monday.

DUNEDIN, Fla. - Some people in Dunedin helped to untangle a roseate spoonbill after it became tangled in fishing line on Monday, March 24.

The backstory:

Footage from John Yanchoris shows the lengthy process of untangling the bird, which had the line caught around its leg and tangled throughout its wing feathers.

Beautiful pink spoonbill tangled in fishing line rescued by Florida locals

Some people in Dunedin helped to untangle a roseate spoonbill after it became tangled in fishing line on Monday, March 24. (Courtesy: Storyful)

Yanchoris told Storyful that he was flying a drone at Dunedin Causeway when a couple noticed the bird was tangled. The trio, along with another local woman, helped to free the bird.

What they're saying:

"He’s calm, he knows we’re helping him," one of the group says in the footage.

Once the line was removed, the group released the bird back onto the causeway.

Courtesy: Storyful

"Awesome to see the local community getting involved in a rescue, especially with the roseate spoonbill being a rare bird in the area. A rare one to come in to rescue," Birds in Helping Hands Board Member and volunteer rescuer Fairl Thomas said.

Dig deeper:

It can be a tedious process to untangle birds caught in fishing line, as Thomas explains. She's a volunteer rescuer who's dealt with countless bird entanglements. This time of year is especially busy.

"Spring into summer we kind of see a peak in entanglements because there's younger birds that don't have any experience. But also there's that aspect of its summer. There's more fish out, more people out fishing. You know, kids are out of school. They're going out to the beaches and the piers and fishing. They might not necessarily know any better either so it's a perfect storm," Thomas said.

If a fisherman does spot a bird entanglement Thomas said never cut the line. It's best to call an experienced rescuer, but in any case, if that's not possible, she said what these Good Samaritans did is exactly what you should do: be patient and as gentle as possible.

"You want to try to remove all of the line and before you release it, make sure you've got everything off, which it looks like they did an awesome job in that video. The hooks can be a little tricky sometimes. We want to cut the barb off instead of backing it through because as you know, the barb is designed to hook the fish so they can't get off of it," Thomas said.

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