TV reporters are trained to maintain calm under pressure, but a New Zealand journalist took things to a whole new level when a bird crashed right into her face while filming a news segment.
Jess Tyson, who works for the current affairs show Te Ao with Moana, was preparing to do another take of the segment she was filming outside when a bird suddenly tried to steal the spotlight and flew into her face.
The wild moment, which took place at Commercial Bay in Auckland a few weeks ago, was caught on camera. In video footage of the incident, Tyson instantly flinched and exclaimed, “Holy s—.”
A colleague asked if Tyson was OK and she said, “Yeah,” then noticed that her eye was bothering her.
“Oh s—, you’re bleeding,” her coworker remarked.
“Am I?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said.
“Oh f—,” she said.
Tyson, who was formerly Miss World New Zealand, later shared a video of the moment with her Instagram followers on Dec. 2. In the short clip, viewers see the bird fly in slow motion and hit her face. Afterwards, the journalist appears with a bloody cut around her right eyelid.
Tyson added the following text to the video: “POV: Just trying to do your job but nature has other plans.”
Tyson had a good sense of humor about the moment and captioned her post, “The commitment to the job is real! Bird needed (glasses) really!”
Tyson tells TODAY.com this is the first time something like this has happened to her on the job.
“Before it happened I was focusing so hard on trying to get my lines right so when the bird hit me it was such a huge shock! The impact itself was most surprising and felt like a heavy pillow was being smacked onto my face. Then next minute I started bleeding,” she said.
The reporter sustained a scratch above her left eye, but didn’t need to go to the doctor.
“I am doing fine now and have a small scar to show the evidence and (a) hilarious story,” she said.
Jess Tyson after the incident.
Right after the incident occurred, a passerby who witnessed the whole thing helped Tyson seek first aid in an office building nearby. Then it was back to work for the persistent reporter, who returned to film another take of her segment.
“I didn’t have to continue but I decided I wanted to because I wasn’t happy with my first takes,” she said.
The journalist tells TODAY.com she’s just “happy” her team caught the moment on camera “to show the evidence.”
After sharing her story on Instagram, Tyson has seen plenty of entertaining responses from social media users.
“It’s been great. So many people are shocked but it’s made a lot of people laugh and I love bringing happiness to people!” she said.
One Instagram user got cheeky with their reaction, writing, “Omg girl!!!! Give me 5 minutes with that bird, I just wanna talk 😂😂😂😂😭😭😭.”
Tyson got a kick out of the comment and replied, writing, “Honestly that bird needed a flying lesson or something!! I wonder if it was attracted to my top hahaha some discipline from you would be absolutely perfect though!! ❤️❤️.”
When one social media user asked if it was the bird’s beak that cut Tyson’s face, the reporter replied, writing, “I’m not sure! I think the beak or even claw … but it was sharp lol.”
Tyson said “all is well” and she’s “OK” following the incident. She now has a “tiny scar” that’s “hardly visible.”
The journalist said the impact of the bird hitting her face was “the craziest part.”
“All is well now though … I can understand why people are so afraid of birds!!!” she commented.
