It was an avian assault.
In a bizarre scene, a peacock believed to be from the Bronx Zoo caused quite the spectacle Wednesday night after escaping and attacking a man on the sidewalk.
Neighbors called the bird "vicious" after it supposedly went after the man around 8 p.m. near the corner of East 180th and Vice Avenue, just two blocks south of the zoo. It then flew into a nearby tree in the West Farms neighborhood.
Zoo officials said that the peacock is believed to be one of the hundreds they have, and they are free-roaming birds. This particular one returned to the zoo of its own volition Thursday morning, officials said.
"We kept an eye on the bird this morning as he started to move around at dawn and fully expected him to return to the zoo as he did," Max Pulsinelli, who directs communications for the Bronx and other Wildlife Conservation Society zoos and aquariums, said. "We had confidence in our knowledge of bird behavior to predict how he would behave if given the chance to do so without interference. We were confident in our staffs’ ability to handle the situation."
That good Samaritan, a man who first saw the peacock on the sidewalk Wednesday night, didn't, however. He said he got pecked when he tried to help.
Get Tri-state area news delivered to your inbox. Sign up for NBC New York's News Headlines newsletter.
Police and firefighters arrived a short time later, with the FDNY confirming that they responded to a call relating to an animal bite and treated the man at the scene.
The man who encountered the bird was not badly hurt and appeared to be in good spirits afterward.
"It just started running up the hill towards traffic. You know, we had to try and keep the bird safe. We chased him, I trapped him inside the gate, he got tired of the gate and then tried to peck me," the man said.
Zoo officials said the animal pecked someone who tried to feed it Wednesday night. The bird, named Raul by the community, appeared generally playful as he soared through the air. He relocated from a tree at Videlia Playground to a higher tree next to the old West Farms Soldiers Cemetery before flying to an even higher rooftop closer to the zoo.
