(WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- A downstate bird rescue is tending to a rare Mississippi kite after the injured raptor was brought in last week.
It's the first time ever volunteers at the Illinois Raptor Center have cared for one of the threatened species.
Jacques Nuzzo, program director for the center that's been in Decatur for 30 years, says they were flabbergasted to see the kite on Thursday.
He tells WBBM someone found the small male they are calling Miki in Springfield, caught between two fences while being chased by a hawk.
Nuzzo says Miki has been a model patient, very calm around the staff. He even ate a mouse.
They expect him to recover from a broken beak and wing without surgery and hope to have him ready to release back in Springfield in about two weeks.
Nuzzo speculates Miki may have come from a nest of Mississippi kites he spotted in Springfield five years ago.
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