AUBURN, Alabama -- Auburn University's Southeastern Raptor Center has successfully released a bald eagle nearly a year after its apparent crash into a fisheries pond on campus.
The eagle took flight Saturday at the E.W. Shell Fisheries Center where workers discovered the bird of prey in one of the fishery ponds.
While eagles feed on fish -- swooping down and plucking them from the water with sharp talons -- it is not known exactly how the large bird ended up in the pond.
"We conducted a number of diagnostics to check out the eagle's health and except for exhibiting suppressed or poor endurance, it checked out fine," said Liz Crandall, a rehabilitation expert at the raptor center.
"It's very unusual for us to see birds this healthy."
Since its discovery, the bird had been recuperating at the raptor center. Specialists announced last week it was flying on its own and ready to be released back into its native habitat.
The raptor center was not able to determine the bird's gender before releasing it.
"The most accurate gender determination of a bald eagle and most raptors has to be done with a DNA sample -- blood, feather," Crandall said.
"These tests cost money, and we prefer to use that money on diagnostics and treatment. Although we would love to know the gender of every raptor we receive, our mission is to provide the best care we can to each bird, which has nothing to do with gender."
Downgraded from an endangered species to a threatened species in 1995, the U.S. bald eagle population has since recovered further, removed from the threatened list in 2007.
The mission of the raptor center is to rehabilitate injured, ill or orphaned birds of prey.
It takes in 200 to 275 birds of prey from across the Southeast annually and has released thousands back into the wild.
See a different angle of the release here.
Updated at 11:02 a.m. May 14, 2013 to add link to second video.