What’s New
The bald eagle has finally become America’s official national bird after a bill was signed into law by President Joe Biden on Tuesday.
Why It Matters
The bald eagle has been a symbol of the United States since its founding almost 250 years ago.
It appears on the Great Seal of the United States, the U.S. president’s flag, the mace of the House of Representatives, countless military insignia, and, of course, the $1 bill.
Many naturally assumed that meant it was also the national bird of the U.S. But the bald eagle was never officially designated as such, perhaps due to at least one of the Founding Fathers opposing the bald eagle as a U.S. symbol.
Benjamin Franklin had clashed with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson over which bird should be included on the Great Seal, telling his daughter at the time that bald eagles were “a bird of bad moral character.”
The powerful bird of prey was eventually added to the Great Seal but did not become America’s official bird until Christmas Eve. Unlike most countries around the world, the United States has never had a national bird in its 248 years of existence.
What To Know
In addition to the law designating the bald eagle as America’s official national bird, Biden signed dozens of other bills into law on Tuesday, according to CBS News.
Indigenous to North America, bald eagles once teetered on the brink of extinction due to a combination of habitat loss, pesticides and hunting.
Their numbers dropped to the triple digits in the mid-1900s, spurring declaration of the Bald Eagle Protection Act. The bird’s population has since increased to an estimated 316,700, including 71,467 breeding pairs, according to data from 2018 to 2019.
Tuesday’s bill was drafted by Minnesota resident Preston Cook, who, until recently, was among the countless Americans stunned to learn that the bald eagle wasn’t already the national bird.
After his realization, Cook wrote the bill and sent it to lawmakers, NBC News reported. U.S. Democratic Senator Amy Klobuchar, of Cook’s home state, then led a bipartisan group to deliver the bill to the Senate, where it passed without opposition.
The bill then coasted through the House of Representatives with unanimous support before landing on the president’s desk Tuesday.
What People Are Saying
Founding Father Benjamin Franklin wrote in a letter to his daughter on January 26, 1784, that he believed bald eagles were a: “Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly…. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America.”
Cook, the Minnesota resident behind the bald eagle bill: “No one has to change anything; it’s just a correction. It is only a correction in history to make things right and makes things the way they should be.”
Josette Caruso was among the scores of Americans stunned that the bald eagle was not already America’s national bird, writing on X: “I thought that the Bald Eagle was already the official American Bird Symbol- didn’t you?”
What Happens Next
Tuesday’s measure to amend a code to formally recognize the bald eagle as America’s national bird may shine a light on them at an important time, as climate change begins to pose a challenge for the species.
Climate change reduces the eagles’ natural habitat and prey, and may also make it difficult for them to reproduce.
