A fire crew had the unusual task of rescuing a bird from a tree.

Firefighters are used to being called to rescue cats trapped in a tree - but a bird?

A concerned citizen rang the Mount Roskill fire brigade after seeing a pigeon hanging upside down in a phoenix palm tree.

The bird had apparently become trapped by one leg and unable to fly away.

The local fire crew turned out to the rescue on Tuesday and found the pigeon had about 15 centimetres of twine wrapped around one of it's feet.

"And the twine got stuck around the branch, it was quite entangled in the tree," a spokesperson for the Mount Roskill fire brigade said.

The bird must have been stuck for a while because by the time they managed to cut the twine, it was exhausted, he said.

"There was no way it was coming down on its own."

"It hardly moved it was so exhausted, you'd think it was dead."

After extricating the pigeon from tree and twine, it lay on the ground not moving for a while before it perked up a bit and the four firefighters and engine went back to the station.

"There's been lots of fires in Mount Roskill and car accidents on the motorway so it was something a little bit different."