By Daily Mail (U.S.) | Created at 2025-03-13 20:02:10 | Updated at 2025-03-14 12:37:54
17 hours ago
Contractors working on a rooftop at a Texas hospital have had to halt their work indefinitely because of a hawk's nest.
Workers getting ready to build a new helipad on the roof of one of the towers at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas were attacked by red-tailed hawks while they were up there, CBS News Texas reported.
'The hawks were buzzing around them pretty closely and so they moved away,' said Chris York, president of the hospital. 'They were making sure the contractors knew they were in unwelcome territory.'
York said the workers discovered a nest with two eggs.
'We immediately contacted Texas Parks & Wildlife and they walked us through the do's and don'ts,' he said. 'They're actually federally protected.'
All hawks, plus nearly two dozen other bird species, are protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.
The law prohibits anyone from killing, capturing, selling, trading, or transporting any protected bird species.
Therefore, the hospital has been forced to delay construction on the helipad until the hawk's eggs hatch.
The hawk's nest (pictured) is on the roof of the hospital where workers were set to build a helipad
Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas has had to delay construction until the hawk's eggs hatch
Workers reported being attacked by the hawk when they went up on the roof
A livestream has been set up so anyone in the public can watch the hawk and its two eggs.
'It's been surprising how much excitement there is,' York said. 'I thought there would be some people who really enjoy this, appreciate it, folks that love nature, that sort of thing, but we've had an overwhelming response of people replying.'
There is precedent going back decades of legally protected animals getting in the way of construction projects.
Last year, several conservative groups sued to stop Dominion Energy from building 176 wind turbines off the coast of Virginia Beach, citing possible impacts to North Atlantic right whale, an endangered species.
The case is still tied up in federal court, but construction has been allowed to continue.
In the 1970s, a tiny fish scientists discovered was able to temporarily stop the Tennessee Valley Authority from building a dam on Little Tennessee River
Researchers argued that the two-inch fish, which they dubbed the snail darter in 1973, should be protected under the Endangered Species Act, The New York Times reported.
The case went all the way to the Supreme Court in 1978, which ruled against the Tellico Dam's builders and ordered them to halt construction to safeguard the fish's habitat.
Ultimately, President Jimmy Carter signed a bill that exempted the Tellico Dam from the Endangered Species Act.
Since the dam was at least 90 percent done even before the Supreme Court order, it was operational by 1979.
