Firefighters rescue tangled pigeon stuck up tree

Firefighters had to think outside the box when trying to free a bird stuck in a fishing line up a tree.

The firefighters were called to a Mangere Bridge reserve off Waterfront Rd after lunchtime on Tuesday to help the bird stuck upside down in a tree branch.

Mangere station officer Richard Knight says it took about 15 minutes to free the bird.

In the end they used the thin thread of a messenger line to pull the branch down, he says.

The tree branch was fragile, making the rescue effort a little challenging for the firefighters.

"I am not too sure how long it [the pigeon] had been stuck," he says.

Just how the bird ended up tangled in twisted fishing line wasn't clear.

A branch had to be broken off during the operation to get the pigeon down safely, Knight says.

The pigeon was successfully rescued and sent back into the open.

- Queenie Jose is an AUT University journalism student.