r/Ornithology • u/Remarkable-Pea4889 • 4d ago

Biden signs a bill officially making the bald eagle the national bird of the US

https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/biden-signs-bill-officially-making-bald-eagle-national-117097174
320 Upvotes

98% Upvoted

26 comments sorted by

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75

u/Hulkbuster_v2 4d ago

How it wasn't for so long, I have no idea, but good nonetheless

77

u/Probable_Bot1236 4d ago

I... yeah. Anyone else here kinda surprised the Bald Eagle wasn't already *officially* the national bird of the US?

31

u/Hulkbuster_v2 4d ago

Me. I mean it's the national symbol, but not the bird.

Probably isn't a much better choice though. It's found in what, 49 states? Not many birds are found in damn near every state

27

u/Probable_Bot1236 4d ago

I have a soft spot for Franklin's good ol' Turkey as a national something or other, but it's distribution is just too narrow for that.

Interesting thought- what- if any- charismatic-ish (earthworms need not apply) animal species is natively in all 50 states? (bonus points for territories). Please tell me we've got more options than some sort of gull or rodent.

[dammit Hawaii...]

27

u/birdinbrain 4d ago

A few options from the bird world include Killdeer, Great Horned Owl, Great Blue Heron, Belted Kingfisher, Tree Swallow, American Robin, Yellow-rumped warbler (albeit across a couple different sub-species), Osprey, Turkey Vulture, Song Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird, Red-tailed hawk, and, of course, the Bald Eagle

18

u/javafinchies 4d ago

Osprey as our national bird would be so cool, they’re awesome

5

u/_A_Monkey 4d ago

They are awesome. My personal favorite bird.

But they are the second most widespread raptor in the World. So I’d prefer the Bald Eagle over Osprey but I don’t even prefer that. #IstandwithBen!

1

u/Wild-Breath7705 2d ago

The passenger pigeon.

5

u/JankroCommittee 4d ago

The wild turkey is found in all states but Hawaii and Alaska. Interestingly, where I live our native species went extinct 12,000 years ago, but has been replaced by another species since European settlement. It is the easiest big bird to find in our landscape now.

1

u/Hulkbuster_v2 4d ago

Deer, but again, Hawaii.

Whales travel along our coasts, and would represent our island state, but we have some landlocked bastards.

Maybe housecats? But that's cheating

5

u/Probable_Bot1236 4d ago

Look, how much would it cost to bribe some U of Hawaii biologists to say the American Robin or North American Black Bear is 'actually' native to the Islands? That'd solve this cleanly lol...

(I don't think I'm going to successfully get the U of Kansas mammalogists to claim humpbacks are native to the Missouri River system, as epic as that'd be...)

6

u/_A_Monkey 4d ago

Loggerhead Shrike doesn’t get enough love.

23

u/Alansalot 4d ago

Should have been the turkey 🦃

10

u/feelingproductive 3d ago

Wow. Seems like it would be hard to get close enough to an eagle to sign its bill. Impressive.

8

u/Helvetimusic 3d ago

Thank god. This was arguably the most important thing on my list of things for him to achieve before leaving office.

31

u/Tracer_Bullet_38 4d ago

Good thing he did that before Trump would have had the chance to make a bucket of KFC the national bird.

7

u/pasarina 4d ago

That’s a good thing.

-21

u/Physical_Buy_9489 4d ago edited 4d ago

Now, if they would only pardon clean looking wild turkey-type heritage turkeys at Thanksgiving instead of those nasty white things. Sign the petition.

14

u/LimeFucker 4d ago

Those ‘nasty things’ are still living breathing animals.

-18

u/Physical_Buy_9489 4d ago

Top bad they need to be pardoned

2

u/Hairiest-Wizard 4d ago

In a surprise act Donald Trump announces that the Domestic Chicken is the national bird on his first day in office.

1

u/WritingGlass9533 3d ago

Sorry, but I have to dispute Ben and the turkey. Yes, the turkey is great and yes, he wrote about it, but he appears to have been writing satirically: https://www.raptorresource.org/2024/11/27/the-wild-turkey-vs-the-bald-eagle/

2

u/Baringstraight 3d ago

I thought it was already.

1

u/imajoeitall 2d ago

Now make it mandatory to include in bio/science classes that the bald eagle is not the sound of the red-tailed hawk lol. He is just a spicy seagull.