A young hawk found last week in a Forsyth County garage is back in the wild.

On Thursday afternoon, Kaitalin White of the Chattahoochee Nature Center in Roswell released a young male Cooper’s hawk in Fowler Park after completing treatment for injuries suffered after getting trapped in the garage.

“Four or five days ago, he got into someone’s garage and kept kind of knocking himself around flying around the garage trying to figure a way out, which sounds ridiculous with a door open” White said. “But they don’t do doorways. For them, he’s not seeking it as an exit; he’s seeing that as another thing to get stuck in.”

The bird was released in the park on Atlanta Highway (Hwy. 9) near a trailhead for the Big Creek Greenway, which was near where he was found. White said it was likely that the hawk was looking for a meal when he got stuck.

“The only time that these Cooper’s hawks get stuck in buildings and things like this, which is actually very common for the species, is they’re chasing songbirds,” she said. “Sky is freedom for a bird, so the first thing that they do is go up, so they end up in the rafters.”

She said the hawk is about a year old and will reach maturity next year.

The hawk was given pain medications and antibiotics for injuries from the ordeal.

“From the outward appearance he had just some wounds on his head and on both wrists from flying into things,” White said. “He didn’t seem to have a concussion, but he certainly knocked himself in the head quite a bit, so he wasn’t behaving like he should have when he came in.”

The Chattahoochee Nature Center’s bird rehabilitation program is not state or federally funded and depends on donations. Donations can be made at chattnaturecenter.org by clicking “Donate Online Now.”