Bald Eagle Is Officially America's Bird, With Biden's Signature

The bald eagle is emblematic of America. It's on coins and bills, graces the Great Seal and inspired conservation efforts that brought the species back from the brink of extinction. Though it was first used as the national symbol more than 240 years ago, Congress had never made it official.

That changed earlier this year. And on Christmas Eve, President Biden signed the legislation declaring the bald eagle the official national bird.

"For nearly 250 years, we called the bald eagle the national bird when it wasn't," said Jack Davis, co-chair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center, in a release. "But now the title is official, and no bird is more deserving."

It's been a long road for Haliaeetus leucocephalus, the bald eagle's scientific name, known for its striking white head and yellow beak atop its brown body. Native to the U.S., populations of the bird — which eats fish and carrion, but was also known to prey on livestock, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service — first declined due to habitat and prey loss. 

But it was the introduction of the pesticide DDT that contributed to the birds' near-disappearance in the 20th century. When the birds ate fish that had been exposed to the chemical, they laid eggs with weak shells. Those eggs didn't survive incubation, and populations declined to a mere 417 nesting pairs by 1963, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service. 

The U.S. banned DDT in 1972 and, a few years later, declared bald eagles endangered. Over the next few decades, the bald eagle populations recovered. By 2007, there were nearly 10,000 nesting pairs in the U.S. and bald eagles were removed from the endangered species list. 

The Fish and Wildlife Service puts the number of bald eagles in recent years in the hundreds of thousands. In recent years, bald eagles have charmed birdwatchers in the heart of New York City, and eagle cams have popped up at the National Arboretum in Washington, D.C., at U.S. Steel in Pennsylvania, and in California's Big Bear Valley.

The legislation designating the bald eagle as the U.S. national bird was spearheaded by Minnesota legislators. The state is home to what Sen. Amy Klobuchar described as one of the nation's largest bald eagle populations.