August 09, 2007
Family's pet parrot survives encounter with hawk
By ANNE GEGGIS
Staff Writer

VIDEO: Front page news - newsjournalonline.com

ORMOND BEACH -- African grey parrot Bogart can talk, but he hasn't yet said a word about an incident most of his kind never live to contemplate.

What happened between the time a hawk ripped him from a screened-in porch and when his human -- the one he calls "Mom" -- Elise Ewaniuk found him lying under a tree in the thick woods probably went beyond words.

On Bogart's seventh visit to the veterinarian in a row Wednesday, the prognosis for survival was good -- even if he might always carry the scars. His veterinarian, Dr. Mark Andersen, isn't sure whether Bogart's neck will ever straighten.

And Ewaniuk hasn't quite recovered herself. "Four days have been like four months," she said.

It all started in the early afternoon Aug. 2 when Bogart was sitting on a perch on the Ewaniuk family's screened pool deck of their home in north Ormond Beach. Then, Ewaniuk heard screaming -- but she didn't know it was her beloved "little man."

"It sounded like something scared, something being attacked," Ewaniuk said of what brought her from her home office to investigate. "I came walking out because we have a bunch of baby (wild) turkeys back there."

What she saw, though, was beyond her imagination -- and something she still sees when she closes her eyes: her pet in the talons of a hawk.

"He was just heading from the screen into the sky," Ewaniuk said. "I thought, 'He's gone. He's got him.' "

The hawk, it appears, had been able to burst through a small tear about the size of a softball in the screen and grabbed the bird known among the Ewaniuk family's friends for asking, "You talking to me?"

Ewaniuk said she ran back in the house for her shoes, ready to run into the forest behind her house.

"I guess I was going in there to see if I could find him eating him," she said. She ran 20 feet and saw her feathered child lying under a tree. "I couldn't believe it. I don't even know what made me run in that direction," she said, explaining that she had seen the bird fly in the opposite direction.
Bogart was rushed to Ravenwood Veterinary Clinic in Port Orange. There, he received oxygen, antibiotics and painkillers. He spent a few nights in an incubator.

"He certainly is lucky," said veterinarian Andersen. "Most attacks like that . . . I've seen birds with the wings torn off, their legs torn off.

"The bird (hawk) was probably startled by screaming and yelling," Andersen said. He advised people not to leave their exotic birds on a porch or outside unattended. "If they see a bird in a cage, they will reach right into the cage," Andersen said.

For now, when Bogart's not resting on her chest, Ewaniuk keeps the feathered patient in a makeshift structure formed of blankets and pillows on the sofa. She can't wait until he's back to his old tricks: chasing people out of the kitchen while laughing, attacking her husband even as he mimics Bogart's voice and insisting that Ewaniuk take a shower.

Tuesday she knew he was back on the road to recovery when he took the first sip of his favorite liquid treat: hot coffee with cream and sugar. Hope that he would be back to his old self blossomed moments after Ewaniuk brought Bogart home.

"I put him down and he said, "C'mere."

Dr. Andersen is my AV. Little Bogart couldn't be in better hands. This guy has had an OWA since he (Dr. A) was a teenager and is really good with both parrots and parronts.

It was interesting to see how this happened even with screening. When I get into my new house I'll have to be especially aware of these things, as there are loads of hawks out there.

What a horrible, horrible thing to have to see happening to your beloved bird. I'm so glad Bogart is going to be okay.

oh my god, i can't even IMAGINE something like that happening to me, i'dbe scarred for life. i am so glad the little guy is going to be ok though, hopefully he isn't too traumatized...

Amazing......I'm all choked up thinking if it was Pita......Someone was watching over them.

Wow. What an awful experience for both the bird and the owner. Thank God he survived, he is so very lucky. I, too, am amazed that the hawk snatched him through a screen..

Apparently, there was a small hole in the screen (baseball sized) that the hawk used. Bogart seems like such a sweetheart. I believe this is why Joel uses double screening on his aviaries.

Maybe a wire screen verses a nylon screen would have worked better. I know there was a hole, but even still a fabric screen can get ripped easily by talons if she'd used maybe a metal screen there wouldn't have been a hole for him to dive through.

Here's a lovely video of Bogart and his mom. You can tell they really love each other. In the beginning of the video, Bogart looks pitiful, but keep watching and you'll see that he's really doing well. He's lost a lot of feathers in the attack.
He is a lovely grey....such a sweetheart.
Here it is:
YouTube - Bogart the Grey survives a hawk attack.