After 25 weeks, a bald eagle successfully rehabilitated at SPCA flies free.

After 25 weeks, more than five-and-a-half months, at the SPCA Monterey County Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Center, a rescued bald eagle was officially set free Friday, June 19.

The bald eagle, a male found in Salinas, arrived at SPCA severely injured on Dec. 21, 2025, suffering from a broken coracoid—a bone located in the chest and shoulder area of the bird that’s essential for flight. He appeared to have been electrocuted, and underwent a lengthy rehabilitation process. After many weeks of dedicated care, medication and specialized physical therapy, the eagle regained his strength and precision needed to survive in the wild.

“He needed quite a few months of cage rest, where we were not moving his wing at all, allowing that bone to heal,” says Beth Brookhouser of SPCA Monterey County. “Then once the bone was healed, we needed to start slow physical therapy with him, which, with a wild animal, as you can imagine, is not a very easy task.”

Brookhouser explains that determining the sex of bald eagles is difficult as the males and females look the same, a striking raptor with a white head and bright yellow beak, often large birds with a dark brown body.

Bald eagles exhibit what’s called reverse sexual dimorphism, meaning the females are distinctly larger than the males, typically around 25 to 30 percent larger. Because of the eagle’s size, staff determined it to be a male, which typically weighs 7 to 11 pounds and has a wingspan of 5.5 to 6.5 feet.

While bald eagle populations have recovered after a steep decline linked to the pesticide DDT—which weakened eggshells—they are still listed as endangered under the California Endangered Species Act due to uneven recovery across the state. They were federally delisted as a threatened and endangered species in 2007, and populations now exceed 300,000 individuals.

The SPCA Monterey County typically sees about two bald eagles per year, with a common cause of injury being head trauma from vehicle collisions.

“This incident was impressive because of how severe his injury was, especially with electrocution injuries,” Brookhouser says, noting that he was a good patient. They released him in the Santa Lucia Preserve, a known habitat for bald eagles, as it posed less potential problems located further away from traffic and power lines. “He gave us quite the show taking off. He took off just beautifully and slowly, and soared over the hills, circled around, and really gave us quite the farewell.”