Subscribe | UPI Odd Newsletter Subscribe SACRAMENTO, March 20 (UPI) -- Birds are generally pretty at home in trees, but firefighters in Sacramento had to be called out Thursday to help a hapless magpie stuck some 30 feet up. Fire Capt. Jim Doucett said in a statement that game wardens at Discovery Park called the fire department after they spotted a rare yellow billed magpie tangled in a tree branch. Advertisement A piece of fishing line had somehow had wrapped around the magpie's leg. The stranded creature was hanging upside down from a branch and was unable to free itself. Battalion Chief Chris Ortiz assessed the scene and sent one of his men up a ladder. In the fine -- if often mythical -- tradition of countless kitty rescues by firefighters, the bird was gently freed. The rangers took a look at the bird, determined it was fine, and set it free. The yellow billed magpie is only found in the Sacramento Valley.
