Sauvignon’s tests are back, but they haven’t shed any light on what brought him here. His bloodwork and x-rays are unremarkable.

A DNA test, however, has confirmed that he’s male, which the staff had guessed based on his size. Females are larger, which is why they assume Ziti, a large adult, is a she.

Even without answers, Sauvignon has gained weight and strength during his stay. He’s now looking like a gawky teenager, with black feathers sticking out from his head like spiked hair. (Bald eagles don’t get their signature white head for several years.) His eyes are still baby-eagle brown — they’ll change to yellow as he matures. The silliest part is the combination of his dark gray beak and yellow lips, which give him a clown smile he’ll sport until his beak changes to adult yellow in a few years.

Ziti, meanwhile, is looking every bit the resplendent national emblem. By early April, both eagles are ready to graduate to the Audubon Center for Birds of Prey in Maitland, Florida, where they’ll get flight training to rebuild their muscles in preparation for their return to the wild.

Sauvignon leaves first, on April 8. Ziti follows the next weekend. Christman, Ziti’s doctor, drives her to Audubon herself. The stakes are high: To make it in the wild, eagles have to fly well enough to hunt. If they can’t be re-released, their options are limited. As Heard explains, “If a zoo wants an eagle, chances are they already have one.”

At Audubon, Ziti gets a full exam and Christman gets a tour, checking out the roomy flight cages that will allow Ziti to get her strength back.

“I'm excited for her. This is the best possible place to succeed,” she says.

Twelve days later, tragedy struck. Ziti refractured her wing and had to be euthanized.

After Ziti’s death, Christman agonized over whether she should have done anything differently. Should she have kept her at UF longer, or did she keep her too long? Could the repair have been more solid?

“When something like this happens, it can be so discouraging. It makes you think, why do we do what we do? But things can't always be as happy and fuzzy as we want them to be. I've thought about it, and there isn't anything I would have done differently. We're all glad we gave her that opportunity. There isn't anything we could have done to change her outcome.”

Collins, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife coordinator, points out that while release into the wild is the ultimate goal, it’s not the only one. Necropsies of eagles that don’t survive add to our understanding of environmental threats the birds and other species face, such as poisoning from lead sinkers, which can be easily avoided if anglers opt for weights made of non-toxic materials. Eagles that die also get another life of sorts through the National Eagle Repository, which provides feathers to Native Americans and Alaskan Natives for religious and cultural ceremonies.

Sauvignon, however, has a different fate. After six weeks of rehab, he’s still geeky as hell, but he’s ready. On a Friday in May, he’s fitted with a tiny leather hood to keep him calm on his way to his new home, Princess Place Preserve in Flagler County. A nesting pair of eagles there has an eaglet almost exactly his age, and while it isn’t necessary to his survival, his rehabbers hope the pair might adopt him.

The hood comes off. He squints in the sun for a moment, then he flies.