SHELBY COUNTY, Alabama -- The rare arrival of two separately rescued bald eagles at pretty much the same time over Thanksgiving weekend wasn't the only surprise for the Alabama Wildlife Center at Oak Mountain State Park.

It was the marking on one of the birds that caused a shock.

The first of the two bald eagles that arrived at the facility last week, one rescued from Lake Guntersville in northeast Alabama, had an identification band wrapped just above its foot.

"We looked at the information on the band and she had been banded so long ago -- with a band today there would be a URL to contact, a website to go to or perhaps a phone number to call," facility director Doug Adair said.

"Her banding had taken place so long ago, the instructions were if you found this bird and you have this information, please mail the information to Washington, D.C. It turned out she had been banded in Tennessee in 1987," Adair said.

For a bird that has been living in the wild, the age was impressive.

"We were surprised to discover that she was at least 27 years old," Adair said. "And she appears to be in great shape and feisty and active, and has many more years to live, we believe. We were surprised to discover that band. We don't often see birds that are almost 30 years old."

Scottie Jackson, the Alabama Wildlife Center's director of education and outreach, was amazed by the bird's age. "In the wild, obviously there are a lot more selective pressures. You have to find your prey. You have to be a very effective hunter. It is not common to see 27-year-old eagles flying out in the wild, so it's a pretty amazing thing," she said.

The Alabama Wildlife Center, a nonprofit organization that cares for roughly 2,000 birds representing 100 different species on average each year, doesn't get many bald eagles. Adair estimated about a half-dozen over the last year brought to the facility for care.

Seeing the two bald eagles at roughly the same time was highly unusual for the organization. "I don't know if we've ever had that," Adair said.

The first eagle, the one with the band, arrived Friday morning after she was rescued at Lake Guntersville on Thanksgiving night. A fisherman had noticed the bird acting unusually on the ground a couple days before Thanksgiving.

"He was back the next day fishing in the same location and saw her again, and this time looked more carefully and noticed she was kind of hopping around obviously in some sort of distress," Adair said. "At that point he called me and that's when the Alabama Wildlife Center got involved and we were able to mobilize a couple of wonderful volunteers."

Lake Guntersville officials became involved and a search began to locate the seemingly injured bird. "The only way to get to the eagle was by boat," Adair said, noting it was dark and raining when the group set out to find the bird. "The eagle had taken shelter under a tree. It took them about an hour searching to find the eagle in the location."

The search party provided care to the bird Thanksgiving night before transporting her on Friday morning to Oak Mountain State Park. With white feathers on her head and tail, the bird has a wingspan pushing 8 feet with a body length of about 4 feet.

"The only apparent injury was two broken talons," one on each foot, Adair said. "She overall seemed to be in pretty good shape. ... She was somewhat emaciated, but we did not find any broken bones or other obvious injuries. So we treated her, began to rehydrate her and treated her with fluids and nutrition, and just began to stabilize her condition."

Jackson said the band on the eagle helped to shed light on the bird's history. Even though the band was created before a website was available, online resources are accessible today to research the identification number.

"You get on the website and you type in the band number. The band was so old it said you need to double check the numbering on the band. It said it was connected to a bird that would be unusually old," she said. "There was not a whole lot of information but it said the bird was banded before it was old enough to fly, so that would make 1987 its hatch year."

Another eagle, this one a male believed to be no more than 2 years old, came from Jackson County east of Huntsville. He arrived at the Alabama Wildlife Center on Saturday after rescuers retrieved him from a golf course, where he was "in rough shape," Adair said, noting the bird "was weak and emaciated."

"There were no obvious wing fractures or broken bones or other injuries that were apparent," he said. "We got fluids in him, rehydrating him. Got nutrition in him, fed him, did an exam."

Adair said the younger eagle had "a brown and white mottled appearance" instead of the white feathers on the head and tail, which do not appear until between 3 and 5 years old.

Both eagles were transported to the Southeastern Raptor Rehabilitation Center at Auburn University for further care last weekend. "Eagles are such large animals that they can benefit in their rehabilitation from not only great care but also from larger facilities, larger enclosures than we have here on site," Adair said.

Both eagles should be released back in the same areas where they were found after their health improves, he said.

"The larger female eagle, we've gotten very good reports about her. She is eating very well, has a hearty appetite, which is a great sign," he said. "The younger male, the reports are also good but his condition still remains guarded because he was in such rough shape in terms of weakness and emaciation."