🇺🇸United States·National Bird & Emblem·since 1782
🦅Bald Eagle
From the brink of extinction back to the Great Seal.
The Bald Eagle has appeared on the Great Seal of the United States since 1782. By the 1960s, DDT pesticide poisoning had collapsed the population to fewer than 500 nesting pairs. After DDT was banned and the eagle gained federal protection, the species recovered — there are now more than 300,000 in the lower 48 states.
Why this animal?
Congress wanted a bird native only to North America. Benjamin Franklin famously preferred the turkey, calling the eagle 'a bird of bad moral character,' but he was overruled. The eagle's size, fierce gaze, and exclusive range across the continent won out.
Things to know
- ·Bald eagles aren't actually bald — the name comes from an older English word 'balde' meaning white.
- ·They have a wingspan up to 7.5 feet and can spot a fish from over a mile away.
- ·Pairs mate for life and reuse the same nest year after year, sometimes for decades. One Florida nest weighed over 2 tons.
- ·Their high-pitched call you hear in movies is usually dubbed in from a red-tailed hawk — real bald eagle calls are surprisingly squeaky.
- ·In 2007 they were removed from the endangered species list — one of the great conservation success stories.