The bald eagle joins the rose, the bison, and the oak tree as an official American symbol
Generations of Americans have seen the bald eagle on the backs of the quarters they put in vending machines and the rugs fictional presidents step on in political dramas. But until Monday, it wasn’t the national bird.
President Joe Biden signed a bill into law making the bald eagle the national bird, so the once-endangered species can now fly alongside other national symbols including the national tree (the oak tree), the national floral emblem (the rose), and the national mammal (the bison).
The bald eagle had been on the nation’s Great Seal since the Revolutionary War and upheld as a proud emblem of the nation, but it was never codified in law as the official bird. An advocate with the National Eagle Center in Minnesota argued this risked another bird, such as a sports mascot, outranking the eagle.
“In Minnesota, we know a thing or two about eagles,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar, a Democrat from Minnesota who spearheaded the bill, wrote on X, formerly Twitter. “We are home to one of the largest populations of bald eagles in the country and the National Eagle Center in Wabasha.”
In 2020, there were 316,700 bald eagles in the United States, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a four-fold increase over its 2016 report. The bird was once on the endangered species list, but conservation efforts led to it being taken off in 2007.