Rare bald eagle on road to recovery after rescue in DeKalb County

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) -A rare rescue happened in metro Atlanta after a bald eagle was found in Panola State Park.

The bird is now in recovery at the AWARE Wildlife Center in DeKalb County, where he is nursing his injured eye and broken wing.

“When we found him, it twisted around 360 degrees,” Scott Lange, executive director, said. “So we had to turn the wing around to get it back into the right position.”

Lange said all of the rescues are extremely important, but this is the first bald eagle they’ve had as a patient since 2013.

“It’s one of the only times as humans we have pushed an animal almost to extinction, but then able to bring them back,” Marjan Ghadrdan, director of animal care, said. “So that’s a huge success story to me, so that makes it special.”

Unfortunately, the bald eagle won’t be released back into the wild, because of his injuries.

His next home may be a sanctuary or educational center.

“At first we were worried he would lose the wing,” Ghadrdan said. “He’s not out of the woods yet, but right now it’s all going really well.”

If you are interested in volunteering or helping AWARE, you can contact the organization at AWAREwildlife.org

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