Man Says Peacock Bit Him After Escaping from Bronx Zoo

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 biting 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.

A man who first saw the peacock on the sidewalk said he tried to contain it, which is when it bit him. 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 injured, 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.

Another witness said the peacock — which the community has named Raul — then flew to safety in the tree, about 10 feet above the ground.

The Bronx Zoo said that peacocks sleep in trees and hope that the bird will come down soon. A zoo official said there were no plans to send a crew out to retrieve the bird, but asked others to refrain from shining lights on it.