As the United States approaches its 250th anniversary, one American symbol is finally getting its official due: the bald eagle. Congress has passed a bill that would officially make the bald eagle the national bird of the United States. The bill is now pending President Joe Biden’s signature.
The bald eagle has been a symbol of America since 1782 when Congress adopted the great seal of the United States, which features a bald eagle holding an olive branch and arrows to symbolize peace and war.
Since then, the bald eagle has come to represent everything from the country at large to individual patriotism. The bird is part of the seal of the president and features on U.S. currency. It has been used as a sports team mascot, and has been plastered on bumper stickers and bourbon bottles.
But the U.S. never made it official for the bird, which only lives in North America. In fact, for a while, the actual bald eagle faced some serious risks.
Americans once hunted the bald eagle, as it would interfere with livestock and fishing. After World War II, suburban development and the pesticide DDT pushed the bald eagle population to the brink of extinction.
By the mid–1990s, the bald eagle had reached the highest risk classification on the Endangered Species List. However, in 2007, it came off the list entirely thanks to a resurgence in its population.
The bald eagle is the national bird thanks to one man: Preston Cook, an eagle aficionado from Minnesota. Cook’s collection of more than 40,000 items lives at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota.
He wrote the bill that now sits on Biden’s desk. Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat, took the text and filed it as a bill.
It doesn’t have a financial cost attached. All it does is add a line to the U.S. code designating the bald eagle as the national bird of the United States.
The U.S. has a handful of other national designations: the rose is the national flower, the oak is its national tree and the bison is the national mammal.
