WASHINGTON — The bald eagle, a symbol of the power and strength of the United States for more than 240 years, earned an overdue honor on Tuesday: It officially became the country's national bird.
President Joe Biden signed into law legislation sent to him by Congress that amends the United States Code to correct what had long gone unnoticed and designate the bald eagle — familiar to many because of its white head, yellow beak and brown body — as the national bird.
The bald eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States, which is used in official documents, since 1782, when the design was finalized. The seal is made up of the eagle, an olive branch, arrows, a flag-like shield, the motto “E Pluribus Unum” and a constellation of stars.
Congress that same year designated the bald eagle as the the national emblem, and its image appears in a host of places, ranging from documents and the presidential flag to military insignia and U.S. currency, according to USA.gov.
But it had never been officially designated to be what many had just assumed it was — the national bird. The bald eagle is indigenous to North America.
The bald eagle first emerged as a national symbol when it appeared on an early Massachusetts copper cent in 1776, the VA said in a publication on the bird.
After the Declaration of Independence was signed that year on July 4, a committee was formed to design a seal for the new nation. It took six years and three committees before the seal that we know today was approved. Secretary of the Continental Congress Charles Thomson created the design, which was adopted on June 20, 1782.
"The olive branch and the arrows held in the eagle’s talons denote the power of peace and war. The eagle always casts its gaze toward the olive branch signifying that our nation desires to pursue peace but stands ready to defend itself," the National Museum of American Diplomacy says.
In the mid-1900s, the bald eagle's existence was threatened by a combination of habitat destruction, illegal shooting and insecticides contaminating the bird's food source, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Some bald eagles were shot because they were seen as a risk to chickens and livestock.
According to a USA Today report, it's believed that there were about 100,000 nesting bald eagles in the U.S. when it was first adopted as the American symbol. By 1963, there were only 417 known nesting pairs of bald eagles, putting the species in danger of extinction.
Congress moved to protect bald eagles in 1940 with the Bald Eagle Protection Act, which was later amended to include golden eagles. Its later addition to the list of endangered species also led to conservation and recovery efforts, the Wildlife Service said. By 1998, the bald eagle had recovered enough that its status was changed to threatened. In 2007, officials said there were over 9,000 nesting pairs of bald eagles in the contiguous states — and the birds were removed from the list altogether.
As of 2019, there are an estimated 316,700 bald eagles, including 71,467 breeding pairs, in the lower 48 states.
