President Joe Biden signed a bill into law on Tuesday, making the bald eagle America's official national bird.

Since the country's founding nearly 250 years ago, the bald eagle has served as a symbol of the United States.

Numerous military insignia, the House of Representatives' mace, the U.S. president's flag, the Great Seal of the United States, and, of course, the $1 bill all feature it.

Naturally, a lot of people thought that meant it was also the U.S. national bird. Perhaps because at least one of the Founding Fathers opposed the bald eagle as a symbol of the United States, the bald eagle was never formally recognized as such.

According to Benjamin Franklin's daughter at the time, bald eagles were "a bird of bad moral character." Franklin had a dispute with John Adams and Thomas Jefferson over which bird should be featured on the Great Seal.

Although the formidable predator was eventually included in the Great Seal, it wasn't until Christmas Eve that it was designated as the official bird of America. In contrast to the majority of nations worldwide, the United States has never had a national bird during its 248-year history.

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What Is The US National Bird? Photo First Cry Parenting
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With 50 states, the United States has an extremely diverse range of habitats that attracts and maintains a thriving bird population across the country.

Each state has its own bird, but what is the national bird of the USA?

What is the US National Bird?

The United States of America designated the bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) as its national bird in 1782. The distinctive form of government of the Roman Republic, which they felt had protected liberty for thousands of years, captivated the founding fathers of the United States.

It should come as no surprise that an eagle was selected to represent the new Republic since eagle imagery, typically of the golden variety, was highly prevalent in Rome and represented both the heavenly power of Christ and the military and political might of the Empire.

What was the national bird before the bald eagle?

Before the Bald eagle became the Great Seal's icon, the first 13 states each had their own heraldry. Prior to the Bald eagle, there was no national bird. In fact, there was no nation until six years before the Great Seal was finalized in 1782, when the colonies merged to form the United States.

What does the bald eagle symbolize?

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Photo First Cry Parenting

The bald eagle represents not only the United States as a nation, but also the American people.

Eagles are a common national symbol in many countries. They are frequently chosen as symbols of strength, courage, freedom, and immortality, to name a few.

The bald eagle is especially noteworthy because it is only found in North America. As a result, it is the ideal animal to represent the United States!

The bald eagle’s characteristics

The bald is a sea eagle, the only sea eagle endemic to the United States, and the largest true raptor in North America. Only the California Condor and American White Pelicans are larger.

How much does it weight? How tall is it?

Female bald eagles weigh up to 5.6 kg while the smaller male has an average weight of about 4.1 kg. They measure up to a metre in length and have a wingspan of anything between 1.8 and 2.5 m.

Where does the bald eagle live?

Northern Mexico, all of the United States save Hawaii, most of Canada, and Alaska are home to it. According to Bergmann's rule, the largest birds are those that live the farthest from the equator.

Bald eagles inhabit wetland habitats, such as rivers, marshes, big lakes, and coastal regions, during the breeding season. These habitats have big hardwood and coniferous trees around the water for perching, roosting, and nesting.

With fresh material added every year, it constructs the largest nest of any bird in North America, up to 4 m deep, 2.5 m wide, and 1 metric ton in weight. Although one nest in the Midwest was discovered to have been continuously occupied for 34 years, most nests are reused for roughly five years before collapsing under their own weight.

They lay one to three eggs, but only a small percentage of the offspring survive; on occasion, the eldest sibling will attack and kill a younger sibling or siblings. With a daily weight gain of up to 170 g, young eaglets have the fastest growth rate of any bird in North America. At around 10 weeks, they leave the nest, but they will spend an additional 6 weeks with their parents.

Partially migratory, bald eagles spend the winter months migrating southward in search of food, though some remain in one place all year. Fish make up over half of its diet, making it an opportunistic feeder. Along with amphibians, crustaceans, and reptiles, they will also take birds and mammals. It is known that they consume over 400 different species, such as trout, salmon, catfish, grebes, ducks, herons, egrets, rabbits, turtles, and snakes.

What does the bald eagle eat?

When hunting fish, the bald eagle swoops low over the water and uses its talons to grab the fish just beneath the surface. It uses ridged barbs on the pads of its toes to help it grasp the fish as it eats by holding the fish in one claw and tearing it with the other. With their exceptionally strong claws, bald eagles have been seen toting a 6.8 kg mule deer—the heaviest verified load of any flying bird.

Fun facts about the bald eagle symbol

1. Bald eagles were once endangered, but because of laws passed to conserve them and ban pesticides that harmed them, they’ve made a serious comeback. They’re not endangered anymore!

2. Bald eagles can live up to 35 years in the wild, and up to 50 in captivity.

3. Here’s a love story for the ages: bald eagles mate for life, with both the mother and the father taking care of the young chicks.

4. Bald eagles are only found on the continent of North America. They can be found up in Alaska and all the way down in Mexico.

5. The wingspan of a bald eagle is between 5 ft 11 in and 7 ft 7 in. That’s longer than the height of the average American!

Why is the Bald eagle the national bird of the USA?

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Photo Bird Spot

The American bald eagle was selected as the emblem of the country to represent the values this bird embodies. For generations, people have associated eagles with bravery, strength, independence, and immortality. Because it is the only eagle native to North America, the American bald eagle was chosen especially to serve as the national symbol of the United States.

In addition to being a powerful emblem, the bald eagle has a lengthy and fascinating past in the Americas. This bird was highly revered by Native Americans, who used it in numerous myths, symbols, and customs. They valued its tailfeathers and used them for fletching their arrows as well as headdresses and jewelry.

Even explorers were impressed by the majesty of the eagle. historical individuals In their journals, Lewis and Clark wrote a great deal about bald eagles, using words of awe to describe the birds.

Who Decided the American Bald Eagle Was Ideal as a National Emblem?

The American bald eagle was chosen by the Second Continental Congress to serve as this country's iconic symbol. Benjamin Franklin, who preferred to have a turkey chosen as the American symbol, was one of the members of the Second Continental Congress who did not think that this bird would make the ideal emblem. But in the end, enough people cast ballots to declare the bald eagle the official national bird and emblem of the United States.
Did Benjamin Franklin want really want the turkey to be the USA’s national bird?

It is often said that Benjamin Franklin opposed the choice of bald eagle as the national symbol of the United States in favour of the wild turkey.

Bald Eagle Faced Extinction

The magnificent national bird of the United States has been threatened with extinction in real life, despite its symbolic importance. There were 100,000 bald eagles nesting in the nation in the late 1800s, but habitat loss and poaching contributed to the birds' rapid decline.

The Bald Eagle Protection Act, passed by Congress in 1940, outlawed the ownership, killing, and sale of the birds. When they started consuming prey tainted with DDT, a pesticide that was widely used after World War II, a new threat emerged. The number of bald eagle breeding pairs in the continental United States was estimated to be as low as 400 in the 1960s, and the bird was listed as endangered in 1978.

The bald eagle's population recovered enough in 1995 to move its status from endangered to threatened, and in 2007 it was completely removed from the list thanks to federal protections and DDT-related regulations.

More National Symbols of the USA

• Anthem: "The Star-Spangled Banner"

• Floral Emblem: Rose

• Tree: Oak tree

• Motto: “In God we trust.”

• Flag: The American flag, also known as the Stars and Stripes, among other names.
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