A hawk believed to have been shot with a nail gun returned home Wednesday in good health.

The hawk’s medical caretakers, the team that captured the bird, and San Francisco Animal Care and Control gathered at the Botanical Gardens in Golden Gate Park to release the bird in the same spot where it was captured Oct. 22.

“We didn’t want to release her anywhere else,” said Rebecca Dmytryk, director of WildRescue, the wildlife emergency responder organization that captured the bird.

The juvenile red-tailed hawk flew around Golden Gate Park with a nail piercing its skull for about two weeks before rescuers were able to trap the bird and bring it to a medical center.

The hawk was treated at the Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley.

Authorities are still searching for the person responsible for shooting the bird with a nail gun, a federal animal cruelty charge.

sgantz@sfexaminer.com