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A kayaker used a white water rafting technique to save a bald eagle floating on a piece of ice near Chicago on Sunday.

Jim Tibensky is a veteran volunteer bird rescuer. He's worked with Chicago Bird Collision Monitors for years. But the call he got on Sunday, was a new one.

"I've rescued hundreds and hundreds of birds, but never a bald eagle," Tibensky told WLS.

The rescue was going to be risky.

Watch the full story and see the rescue in the video player above.

"The bird, with their talons and beak, could really do some damage, and obviously, when a person gets close, they're going to be terrified," Tibensky said.

Bird watchers reached out to the rescue group after spotting the bald eagle floating on a single piece of ice in Waukegan Harbor.

"The bird looked really miserable. I mean, it was wet, bedraggled, and when I got there, it didn't move at all. From the time I saw it, to the time they got it in the net, I didn't even see it blink its eyes," Tibensky said.

Tibensky, a longtime kayak racer, used a technique he learned from white water rafting to push the ice and the eagle to shore.

"I got my bow up on the ice a little bit and then just very slowly, hoping not to dislodge the bird, paddled. It was on the opposite side of the harbor from where the people were, so I had to paddle it all the way across," he said.

That's where other volunteers stepped in.

"They went and got some nets with very large handles and managed to scoop the bird up," Tibensky said.

The eagle was taken to Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn, where it's now being nursed back to health.

"He's eating, sitting up, looking 100% better than yesterday," Tibensky said.

Rescuers believe the eagle may have gotten sick from ingesting poison from its prey.

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