CRANBERRY TWP — Carlos Marin was returning home from an appointment Wednesday afternoon when he noticed a bird flapping on the side of the road.

“I saw him sitting on the side of the road, struggling to fly,” said Marin.

A brown and white bird almost two feet tall that Marin said appeared to be a juvenile bird of prey then walked north on the berm of Graham School Road for about 150 yards before hopping up a bank that ends at the Laurelwood apartment complex.

Marin pulled over to ensure the bird didn’t get hit by a vehicle. He then watched as it found a fallen branch on a small tree, hopped onto the branch and walked to the middle of the tree.

Marin called 911, and a Cranberry Township police officer arrived about 45 minutes later as the bird continued resting in the tree.

“I figured he was hurt or he would have flown,” Marin said.

The officers called the state Game Commission to request a wildlife conservation officer respond to help the bird, as well as Skye’s Spirit Wildlife Rehabilitation Center in Barkeyville, Venango County.

When a Laurelwood resident walked up the stairs near the tree, the bird hopped down onto the bank and made its way into the parking lot, still unable to fly.

Two officers followed the bird up the bank and watched it near a set of pine trees alongside the lot. They eventually caught him.

“When I first saw him on the side of the road, I was like, ‘Oh cool’ and I was taking pictures,” Marin said. “Then when he tried to fly, I knew he was hurt.”

The bird’s left wing appeared to droop down its side.

“I’m hoping they can save him,” Marin said. “He’s a beautiful bird.”

Chris Deal, a wildlife conservation officer, arrived not knowing the officers had captured the bird. He conducted an extensive search.

“If it were around, we would have found it by now,” Deal said.

But the mystery was solved later in the afternoon, when Maryjane Angelo, executive director of Skye’s Spirit, reported that the bird was safe in her facility’s possession.

Angelo said the township police caught and boxed the bird, and then called her facility to ask what to do with it.

The officers were told to bring the bird to A.G. Turley Services on Route 19, and an employee there would drive the bird north to Skye’s.

Angelo reports that the female yearling red-tailed hawk had a broken wing that it had apparently suffered a bit earlier.

“It looks like (the break) is at least three or four days old,” Angelo said. “Somebody probably hit it (with a car) and it’s been living off road kill.”

She explained that motorists and passengers throw uneaten food out of the car window, which attracts rodents. When the hawk swoops in to catch the rodent, it is in danger of being hit by a passing car.

“Hawks can’t see a car coming because they are focused on their prey,” Angelo said. “Once they’ve got it locked on, that’s what they’re going for and they are not going to turn their head away from that prey.”

She said the weight of the bird leads her to believe some carrion must have been available for her to feed on in the days after her wing was broken.

Angelo put a call in to the veterinarian, where the otherwise healthy bird will receive X-rays and possible surgery to repair the wing. The all-volunteer Skye’s Spirit staff will then nurse the bird back to health and rehabilitate her until she can return to the wild.

Angelo said her facility receives no state or federal funding, and operates on donations alone. She said the Cranberry Township bird will eat about $5 per day during its stay, and surgery could cost hundreds of dollars.

Angelo said A.G. Turley Services, a longtime towing and truck repair service in the township, once rescued a box turtle from Interstate 79 and brought it to Skye’s Spirit. The Turleys have been a friend and supporter of Skye’s Spirit since then and often drive injured animals to the facility.

Angelo said she will post photographs of the Cranberry bird on the Skye’s Spirit Facebook page starting today.

For more information or to donate to Skye’s Spirit Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, log onto www.skyes-spirit.com.