The United States is set to finally designate the bald eagle as its national bird after centuries of appearing on the country’s seal and those of nearly every federal agency.
Despite popular belief that the bald eagle has already received this honor and some government departments touting its status as the national bird in official documents, the bird has never received the designation. But all that could change this week when the House votes on a bill to name the bald eagle the national bird.
“The bald eagle has long been a symbol of freedom and patriotism for our nation,” Sen. Marywayne Mullin (R-OK), who co-introduced the legislation in the Senate, said in a statement. “It’s only fitting we officially designate the bald eagle the national bird of the United States. I am glad to join my colleagues on this introduction.”
Congress first approved the U.S. Great Seal in 1782, fresh off the country’s victory over the British Empire that secured its independence. The seal features a bald eagle at the center, an image that has been replicated by several federal agencies that have similar seals with the bald eagle as the main focus — making it the most pictured bird in the country.
As a result, many have conflated the bird as being the country’s national symbol.
“While most people assume the bald eagle is our nation’s official bird, the fact is our country doesn’t have an official bird,” Preston Cook, co-chairman of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center, said in a statement. “It’s time the bald eagle, long revered as our national symbol, finds its rightful place as our country’s official national bird.”
Unlike the bison, which has been recognized as the national mammal, or the rose, the national flower, no bird has ever been named the national bird.
That is, until this summer when the Senate passed a bill that would designate the bald eagle as the country’s feathered symbol — a proposal the House is finally set to take up this week before adjourning for the rest of the year.
The bald eagle has a somewhat rocky history with the U.S. Despite becoming one of the country’s most recognizable symbols, the number of birds quickly began to dwindle in the late 1800s due to habitat destruction and hunting.
Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act in 1940 after the bird population grew so low, making it illegal to possess, kill, or sell the birds.
However, their numbers began to decrease after a new threat hit the population during World War II: DDT, an insecticide consumed by many of the birds’ prey, which ended up killing much of the bald eagle population. By the 1960s, there were approximately 400 breeding pairs left in the continental U.S.
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Less than 20 years later, the bald eagle was placed on the endangered species list.
Lawmakers began passing increased protections for the birds and regulations involving DDT. By 1995, the bald eagle population recovered enough to be removed from the endangered species list and was instead designated as threatened. In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the list altogether.
This article was originally published at www.washingtonexaminer.com
