Majestic bald eagle is left dazed but unharmed after flying into and shattering a patio window

A bald eagle flew into the patio window of a California home with enough momentum to smash the glass - and stood around after dazed but unharmed.

The four to five-year-old bird was presumed to be clumsily hunting when it crash-landed into the backyard of a Palo Alto home, animal control officers said.

Palo Alto Animal Control got a call late last month from a bewildered homeowner who said an eagle had crashed into their house.

The animal control officers and dispatch were also in disbelief, and at first presumed it was actually a smaller and more common bird, like an owl or a hawk.

A bald eagle flew into the patio window of a California home with enough momentum to smash the glass. The eagle is pictured here through the broken window of the house

The four to five-year-old bird was presumed to be clumsily hunting when it crash-landed

The smashed patio window in the garden of the San Francisco home

'I'm thinking it's probably a long-shot that it actually was a bald eagle but it sure enough was,' Animal Control officer Cody Macartney told local station KRON4.

'When I saw it standing there, it was a once-in-a-career thing. I've never been that close to a bald eagle,' he said. 'The first thing I noticed was the size of its talons and its feet.'

Macartney and his partner, Officer Kadri Corrollo, examined the eagle and didn't notice any injuries, their office said in a Facebook post.

'The resident's exterior window pane had been shattered, but the inside pane was intact. Our best guess is that the eagle was hunting a smaller bird, and just flew too low for his own good,' read the post.

'The eagle also appeared to be partially covered in Baylands mud, so we could tell he was not having the best day.'

Despite coming prepared with a net to capture the eagle, the pair decided instead to see if it would be able to fly off on its own accord. 

'The eagle heard me coming and just took off, landed on what I thought was a barbecue, but turned out to be a fountain in the yard that was covered,' Macartney told KRON4. 

'It kind of stood there majestically for a little while. I got closer and it said "nope", and just got onto the fence and flew off.'

Officers Cody Macartney (left) and Kadri Corrollo (right) examined the eagle and didn't notice any injuries, their office said in a Facebook post

The eagle initially took flight and landed on a covered fountain in the garden

Despite being almost extinct around 50 years ago, bald eagles have made a miraculous comeback in recent decades.

Records are sparse about bald eagles' early populations in the Bay Area.

An atlas shows a nest in 1915 south of San Francisco was the last evidence of local nesting until the species' current recovery.

By the mid-1960s, fewer than 30 nesting pairs of bald eagles remained in California - and they were all in the northern third of the state.

Macartney described his close encounter with the bird last month as unexpected.

'Every day something new, we've moved a long way from the dog-catcher that everyone thinks we are,' he told KRON4.

'You kind of expect anything in this job.'