After 240 Years, It’s Finally Official: The Bald Eagle Is America’s National Bird

A few years back, on a sunny Sunday in late May, I was out on my deck with an ice-cold beer and a fine cigar, enjoying a fine, sunny Susitna Valley afternoon. After a bit, I heard a motorcycle stop on the road out in front of the property. Then I heard someone’s voice calling to something and heard him crashing into the brush. So, being the curious sort, I went down to see what was going on. The motorcycle rider had seen a bald eagle with a broken left wing in the brush alongside the road. As near as we could figure, he had made to drop on some prey critter and had clipped the power line.

One of the neighbors came along and said they had a big dip net and a wire kennel. So they went and got it, and then the motorcycle guy and I managed to get the bird calmed down, into the net, and then into the kennel – on his back, as birds stay calmer that way. Meanwhile, the neighbors made some phone calls and found they could take him down to Houston to the rehab center.

So off he went. Before our neighbor took off with the magnificent bird, the motorcycle guy and I both petted the eagle on the head and told him everything was going to be OK. And I feel like I helped America. This is our national symbol, after all. We never heard for certain what happened to the eagle, but birds’ wing bones are fragile and birds with these injuries seldom fly again, although our neighbor who handed the bird off was told that it would probably end up as an ambassador bird for the Mat-Su schools.

Now, perhaps as a Christmas present to the country, we see that a bill has been passed by Congress and signed on Christmas Eve by President Biden officially acknowledging the Bald Eagle as our national bird.

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. 

The eagle is a fine national symbol; an eagle was the symbol of the Roman Republic as well, so there’s a long precedent. But somehow, while the eagle has been our national symbol since 1782 when it appeared on the Great Seal, it was never designated as the national bird. There’s a difference.

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. 

I think we already pretty much took that for granted, but at least now it’s official. Sure, Congress has a lot of more consequential things they could be up to, but this seems like an appropriate thing for the outgoing lame duck (with, we hasten to add, a Democrat-controlled Senate) Congress to be doing. Why not?

During the design of the national seal, by the way, the reports of certain of the Founding Fathers to favor the wild turkey over the eagle have been greatly exaggerated. And honestly, a superpower with a turkey as a national symbol? That’s not exactly intimidating for the bad guys out there – and there will always be bad guys out there. They will surely fear the eagle’s talons over the turkey’s wattles.

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