Ever since Congress's 1782 decision to feature it on the Great Seal of the United States, the bald eagle has served as an American symbol. It’s often featured on the covers of history books, or soaring through the sky of an epic feature film (though that majestic cry is usually of a red-tailed hawk). Its confident pose can be seen on the United States' Presidents Flag, military emblems, and even our dollar bills. But that’s not to say its road to fame wasn’t a little rocky.
First, founding father Benjamin Franklin complained to his daughter Sarah that the seal’s eagle rendition looked like a turkey, and furthermore, that the bald eagle “is a Bird of bad moral Character. He does not get his Living honestly... [and] is too lazy to fish for himself.” Next came the westward expansion in the 1800s, when gunslinging settlers mistook bald eagles for their ne’er do well cousins, the golden eagles that actually were a threat to their livestock. And finally, exposure from the post-war DDT pesticide was found to have a devastating effect on bald eagle eggs, rendering the shell too thin to sustain itself before hatching. By 1963, researchers found that only 417 pairs of bald eagles remained.
Several initiatives went into protecting them over the years, including the 1940 Bald Eagle Protection Act that made it illegal to kill or own bald eagles, and their classification as an endangered species in 1967. And in 1972, the Environmental Protection Agency banned DDT in the United States. While not without controversy, one hope for the ban was that shell thickness would no longer be impacted.
It would take several decades, but the impact of those initiatives would finally take hold on June 28, 2007, when the bald eagle was officially removed from the endangered species list. Despite those paltry numbers fifty-seven years ago, the latest conservation count stands at more than 70,000 bald eagle pairs, with the overall number of bald eagles now topping 316,000 nationwide. Not too shabby for a lip-syncing, turkey-looking bird of bad moral character.
Books
Written by people who have dedicated years to the study of wild eagles, The Eagle Watchers: Observing and Conserving Raptors Around the World provides an insider's view into the daily lives and magnificent journeys of these often misunderstood creatures.
How can you tell hawks from eagles, or falcons from vultures? In Identifying Birds of Prey: Quick Reference Guide for Eastern North America, a Cornell Lab of Ornithology researcher explains the differences in this engaging quick-reference guide.
Endangered species are animals or plants in danger of becoming extinct. In Endangered Species: New Research, catch up to what science knows about the roles of climate change, extensive urbanization, overgrazing, and agricultural expansion in preventing extinction.
Videos
The recovery of the bald eagle on the Channel Islands mirrored its larger recovery in the continental United States. In Return Flight: Restoring the Bald Eagle to the Channel Islands, learn how innovation and dedication can triumph in the face of one of the most pervasive environmental challenges of our time.
What makes eagles so remarkable? In Eagle Power, researchers explore the exceptional strength, eyesight, and flying skills of eagles, and in-the-nest footage of bald eagle chicks struggling to survive.
Can the natural world ever be restored to how it once was? In Reintroducing the Bald Eagles, a video segment of a segment in Restoring Paradise: An American Story, biologists discuss the reintroduction of the bald eagles into a land that was once considered an ecological paradise.
Traci Avet is a librarian who has worked in libraries for over twenty years, and has had the pleasure of experiencing vast card catalogs and due-date card stamping.