Firefighters are used to saving cats stuck up trees, but a Dunedin brigade was this morning tasked with rescuing a bird which had come a cropper in some branches.
The paradise duck had a lucky escape after its leg became wedged between two branches of a tree in Blanket Bay Rd, outside Sawyers Bay.
Witness Kelly-Jo Sweeney said Port Chalmers Volunteer Fire Brigade arrived just after 11am with a large ladder appliance.
Rather than trying to get the duck out of the tree, it was easier to break the branch, releasing it once they got to the bottom of the ladder.
The duck had been hanging by its leg for quite some time.
It appeared distressed after the ordeal, but calmed down once it was lifted from where it had been hanging.
A member of the public took the bird to the vet in a cat basket.
