Last month, an Australian magpie suddenly found themselves in a terrifying situation. During a recent storm, the bird had gotten entangled in a tree, leaving them hanging upside down by a string — 50 feet off the ground.

When Tasmania-based Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary heard the news about the magpie, they knew they needed to help. But the bird was stuck so high up in the tree that they couldn’t be reached with a normal ladder. So the wildlife sanctuary posted about the bird on Facebook, asking if anyone could help.

“Immediately, we were overwhelmed with support and well wishes,” Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary wrote on Facebook.

Within just a few hours, an arborist named Trent O’Shea arrived to help the magpie who desperately needed his help. With his special equipment, he was able to scale the tree and free the magpie.

“It was a bit of a challenging climb, just after dark,” O’Shea wrote on Facebook.

Since it was nighttime, O’Shea was able to capture some thermal footage of the rescue:

Once O’Shea was able to remove the magpie, he realized why they’d gotten stuck in the first place — the magpie had a fishing line wrapped around their leg.

Unfortunately, Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary has recently had to rescue multiple magpies and other birds from similar situations. As birds gather materials for their nests during the spring, they sometimes accidentally get one of their nest materials stuck around their feet.

“Sadly, with items such as twine, fishing line and other pieces of rubbish commonly found littering our environment, it’s rather common to see birds become entangled,” Bonorong Wildlife Sanctuary wrote on Facebook.

The sanctuary recommends securing any trash or loose pieces of string out of reach of wildlife to prevent birds from getting entangled.

After O’Shea rescued the magpie, Bonorong quickly rushed the magpie to the vet, who was successfully able to remove the fishing line from around the magpie’s foot.

Since the magpie likely got the fishing line stuck on their foot back in spring, they’d probably been flying around with it for months. After months with a fishing line around their foot and hanging upside down for so long, the magpie’s leg was injured. So Bonorong is going to keep the magpie at their sanctuary until they’re recovered enough to return to nature.

“Luckily, the bird is poised to make a good recovery!” the sanctuary wrote on Facebook.

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“I knew I had to do something, anything.”

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Source: Los Angeles Times (edited)