The Upper East Side’s beloved hawk, Pale Male, was the target of a cruel attack yesterday when a construction worker pummeled him with rocks – and now bird lovers are fearing for Pale Male’s life.
The famous fowl was struck and likely wounded with at least one thrown object in an incident that one steamed cop called “a crime against nature.”
Witnesses said the bird was perched on a piece of masonry on an upper floor of 1040 Fifth Avenue at E. 85th St. at 3 p.m. when the worker, standing on the roof above, started chucking rocks at him.
After he was hit, Pale Male, whose many trials and tribulations have captivated the city over the past few years, stayed on the ledge.
“I can’t tell how he’s doing,” said Lincoln Karim, a video engineer who has long chronicled Pale Male’s exploits.
His bird “wife” Lola was not at the scene at the time of the sickening attack.
A spokesman for the construction company said, “We are here just to cooperate with the authorities,” adding that the worker had been fired.
Karim was on hand to witness and photograph the attack. Afterward, he alerted cops and attempted to have the rock-thrower, identified by sources as Antonio Torrado, busted.
“I usually look for the red-tailed hawk [Pale Male] in this area and when I looked up the building, these two construction workers were very close to the bird,” Karim told The Post.
“Next thing I see, they are throwing rocks at the bird. This is a federally protected bird and this person should be arrested.”
Police made no arrests.
“We are going to investigate and possibly an arrest will be made,” said Sgt. Chris Vaber of the NYPD’s Central Park Bureau.
Pale Male soared into the nation’s consciousness when the co-op board at a posh Fifth Avenue building tried to eradicate his nest after a campaign by one resident, CNN anchor Paula Zahn’s husband, Richard Cohen.
After a public outcry, the building allowed Pale Male and his mate Lola to return.