Palo Alto zoo’s lost bald eagle has landed safely

A 28-year-old bald eagle named Sequoia, a resident of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, went missing on Monday when she flew off while doing a flight demonstration. She was found Friday. A 28-year-old bald eagle named Sequoia, a resident of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, went missing on Monday when she flew off while doing a flight demonstration. She was found Friday. Photo: Courtesy Of Lee Marcus Photo: Courtesy Of Lee Marcus Image 1 of / 1 Caption Close Palo Alto zoo’s lost bald eagle has landed safely 1 / 1 Back to Gallery

A bald eagle based at a Palo Alto zoo that had gone missing early this week was found and recovered Friday morning, officials said.

The nearly 28-year-old bald eagle, Sequoia, flew off during a demonstration at a local park on Monday in Palo Alto, according to John Aikin, the director of the Palo Alto Junior Museum & Zoo, where the bird lives.

The bird was spotted on Thursday flying around west Palo Alto and then was recovered on Friday morning at the Rancho San Antonio Open Space Preserve near Los Altos in the Santa Cruz Mountains, officials said.

The zoo had put a radio transmitter on Sequoia and was able to track her movements through Palo Alto and into Portola Valley on Tuesday before the signal was lost, they said.

Sequoia was doing a regularly-scheduled flight demonstration on Monday at Byxbee Park in Palo Alto when she got distracted by another bird and flew off “like a terror after it,” Aikin said.

Aikin first came across Sequoia back in 1988 when she was just 5 months old and was found shot in Humboldt County, an incident that left her tail paralyzed and part of one of her toes removed. The rescued animal was offered to the San Francisco Zoo, where Aikin worked at the time.

Years later, the zoo offered Sequoia back to Aikin, who had moved onto his job in Palo Alto.

“We’ve grown and changed a lot in those years,” Aikin said.

Hamed Aleaziz is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: haleaziz@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @haleaziz