Rescuers catch one cowboy pigeon in Las Vegas — and find out how its hat stayed on

Animal rescuers have unraveled part of the mystery of the cowboy hat-wearing pigeons that have been roaming Las Vegas this month.

One of the birds’ cowboy hats is attached to its head with glue, which rescuer Mariah Hillman said she learned on Monday when the pigeon dubbed Cluck Norris was finally captured, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.

Hillman, who works with a pigeon advocacy group called Lofty Hopes in the Nevada city, said the pigeons seemed to be scratching their heads to remove the hats, per the Review-Journal. Hillman also said the glued hat removed feathers from Cluck Norris’ head, according to the newspaper.

“We captured Cluck Norris today,” Lofty Hopes rescuers wrote in a Monday Facebook post, which has been shared dozens of times. “Still on the stake out for Coolamity Jane.”

Lofty Hopes shared a picture of Cluck Norris showing the bird in a carrier, still wearing a tiny bright red cowboy hat.

A trap near the campus of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, is what ultimately captured Cluck Norris, the Reno Gazette Journal reports.

“We’ll have Coolamity Jane real soon,” Hillman said, according to the Gazette Journal.

The Review-Journal reported that “Cluck Norris’ next stop is the vet’s office to see if the hat should be removed immediately or if it can be left to fall off in its own time as he molts.”

It’s still not clear who’s behind the stunt.

Video of the behatted birds was posted two weeks ago on Facebook, generating national media attention.

Pigeons strut in cowboy hats on video, perplexing Las Vegas: ‘Did they glue them?’

“Just another day in the neighborhood,” Bobby Lee wrote in a post sharing the short clip.

But while the Wild West accessories might look funny, representatives of Lofty Hopes weren’t laughing.

“We are headed to the location to see if we can find these birds, trap them, and get these hats off,” Lofty Hopes rescuers wrote in a Facebook post sharing the clip of the pigeons.

The clip also went wild on Twitter, where it was shared by Las Vegas Locally and viewed millions of times.

“There are consequences to legalizing marijuana,” the tweet said.

Lee captured the video near Tropicana Avenue and Maryland Parkway, KTNV reported. Lee said the video was taken after he happened to spot one of the animals out of the corner of his eye, according to Storyful.

“I saw something red on the pigeon’s head and looked down to these awesome things,” Lee told Storyful. “The rodeo is in town so that’s the only explanation I have.”

Even Hillman at first reacted positively to the hats.

“At first, I was like, oh my god that’s cute!” Hillman told KVVU. “Then, I was like, wait a minute — how did they get those hats on there?”

Hillman told the TV station the hats could hurt the animals.

“Is it something that’s going to impede their flight or attract predators?” Hillman asked KVVU.

Some material in this story appeared in an earlier article by the author