Man accidentally hits bird nest, then drives hundreds of miles with last egg in hand

A Texas man drove for hours with one hand on the steering wheel and the other clutching an egg, on a mission to save a life.

He was working a job at a property in West Texas, near Odessa, when he accidentally ran over a bird’s nest, destroying all but one egg, the Rogers Wildlife Rehabilitation Center said in a May 31 Facebook post.

Determined to salvage what he could, he grabbed the egg and took it home with him to Lufkin — roughly 500 miles east — delicately holding it, keeping it warm during the long journey, the center said.

But even after transporting the egg from one end of the state to the other, the road trip wasn’t over yet, according to the post. The egg soon hatched and a chick emerged, “but the couple wondered who could raise the baby.”

They couldn’t find anywhere nearby to bring the bird, so the man’s wife made a roughly 170-mile drive northwest to the Rogers rehab center, the post said.

The chick, which the center identified as a roadrunner, is in safe hands.

“He is now snuggling in a container on top of a warmer and under a little blanket with two other nestlings,” the center said. “Now the question is what to name this baby road runner who has already traveled across Miles and Miles of Texas!”

While roadrunners aren’t as common as other birds species, they can be found throughout much of the southwestern U.S. and Texas, thriving in a variety of environments, experts say.

“The roadrunner is [equally] at home among the swamp lands, tall pines, and magnolias of East Texas, the limestone outcroppings and brush of the Hill Country, and the mesquites and prickly pear of West Texas,” according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

This story was originally published June 5, 2023 at 3:47 PM with the headline "Man accidentally hits bird nest, then drives hundreds of miles with last egg in hand."