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National Bird: Bald Eagle

The bald eagle is a large, powerful, brown bird with a white head and tail. The term "bald" does not mean that this bird lacks feathers. Instead, it comes from the word piebald, an old word, meaning "marked with white."

The bald eagle was made the national bird of the United States in 1782. The image of the bald eagle can be found in many places in the U.S., such as on the Great Seal, Federal agency seals, the President's flag, and on the one-dollar bill.

Why was the bald eagle chosen as our national symbol?

The Founding Fathers wanted to choose an animal that was unique to the United States. For six years, the members of Congress engaged in a dispute over what the national emblem should be. As a result of the debate, the bald eagle was chosen because it symbolized strength, courage, freedom, and immortality and that it would look much better as our national symbol.

When Europeans first arrived on the North American continent in the 1600's, there were an estimated 25,000 to 50,000 bald eagles, but populations have since dropped for many reasons. Many eagles were captured for getting too close to poultry or fishing nets; some were captured for falconry; and many eagles were poisoned by pesticides. In 1967, the bald eagle was included on the Endangered Species List.Federal laws, such as the Bald Eagle Protection Act, protect the bald eagle and have led to the recovery of bald eagle populations.

To learn more, check out the following links:

Read the proposed rule to remove the bald eagle from the Endangered Species List in the Federal Register [Text, PDF].
Read when the bald eagle was downgraded from endangered to threatened on the Endangered Species List in the Federal Register [Text, PDF].
Learn more about the endangered and threatened wildlife and plants in the Code of Federal Regulations (50CFR17).
Read laws protecting bald eagles in the U.S. Code (Title 16, Chapter 5a).
Learn more about the history of the bald eagle from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Learn more about the bald eagle and the Endangered Species List from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services.

Identification

Length: 32 inches Wingspan: 80 inches
Sexes similar
Very large, broad-winged, broad-tailed hawk
Rounded wings
Thick, hooked bill
Plucks fish from water with talons

Adult

White head and upper neck
White tail
Dark brown body plumage
Yellow bill

Immature

Dark bill and dark cere
Dark brown body plumage, including head and tail
Variable amounts of white on underwing coverts, belly, and back
White head and tail, and dark underwings are gradually acquired in four years

Taxonomic Hierarchy
Kingdom	Animalia -- animals
Phylum	Chordata -- chordates
Subphylum	Vertebrata -- vertebrates
Class	Aves -- birds
Order	Ciconiiformes -- albatrosses, alcids, auks, cormorants, diurnal birds of prey, eagles, falconiforms, falcons, flamingos, grebes, gulls, hawks, herons, ibises, loons, osprey, oystercatchers, pelicans, penguins, petrels, plovers, shearwaters, shore birds, storks, totipalmate swimmers, tube-nosed swimmers
Family	Accipitridae -- eagles, hawks, kites
Genus	Haliaeetus Savigny, 1809 -- fish eagles
Species	Haliaeetus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766) -- Águila cabeza blanca, bald eagle
	Direct Children:
Subspecies	Haliaeetus leucocephalus alascanus
Subspecies	Haliaeetus leucocephalus leucocephalus (Linnaeus, 1766)

The Rose

Flower by: Santalady National Flower; National Floral Emblem; National Symbol; US Flower: Rose

(genus Rosa)

Adopted on November 20, 1986.

The term rose is applied to numerous shrubs and vines in the genus Rosa. They come in a variety of colors, have a fragrant scent and thorns on their stems. The rose has been favored by many everywhere. The edible petals have been added to salads and used in medicines since the times of antiquity. It was sacred to Aphrodite.

History of the National Floral Emblem

September 23, 1986, the House of Representatives passed a joint resolution naming the rose as the "national floral emblem" of the United States. The Senate had passed the resolution in 1985.

The measure then went to President Ronald Reagan. He signed the resolution into law on October 7, 1986 in a ceremony in the White House Rose Garden.

On November 20, 1986, President Reagan signed Proclamation 5574: The National Floral Emblem of the United States of America: The Rose. (Note: a proclamation announces an act by the government; it does not have the effect of law.)

Sources:
"President Rose To The Occasion", San Jose Mercury News, October 8, 1986, p. 6A
Facts on File, 1986 p. 774
Chase's Annual Events, 1988 p. 284
Vanderbilt University. Television News Archive.

Below is listed a copy of both the U.S. law that proclaims the rose as the National Flower, and the Proclamation made by the President of the United Sates of America, that the law requested be written.

UNITED STATES CODE
TITLE 36. PATRIOTIC SOCIETIES AND OBSERVANCES
CHAPTER 10--PATRIOTIC CUSTOMS

s 187. National floral emblem

The flower commonly known as the rose is designated and adopted as the national floral emblem of the United States of America, and the President of the United States is authorized and requested to declare such fact by proclamation.

(Pub.L. 99-449, Oct. 7, 1986, 100 Stat. 1128.)

Proclamation No. 5574. The Rose Proclaimed the National
Floral Emblem of the United States of America

Proc. No. 5574. Nov. 20, 1986, 51 F.R. 42197, provided:

Americans have always loved the flowers with which God decorates our land. More often than any other flower, we hold the rose dear as the symbol of life and love and devotion, of beauty and eternity. For the love of man and woman, for the love of mankind and God, for the love of country, Americans who would speak the language of the heart do so with a rose.

We see proofs of this everywhere. The study of fossils reveals that the rose has existed in America for age upon age. We have always cultivated roses in our gardens. Our first President, George Washington, bred roses, and a variety he named after his mother is still grown today. The White House itself boasts a beautiful Rose Garden. We grow roses in all our fifty States. We find roses throughout our art, music, and literature. We decorate our celebrations and parades with roses. Most of all, we present roses to those we love, and we lavish them on our altars, our civil shrines, and the final resting places of our honored dead.

The American people have long held a special place in their hearts for roses. Let us continue to cherish them, to honor the love and devotion they represent, and to bestow them on all we love just as God has bestowed them on us.

The Congress, by Senate Joint Resolution 159 [Pub.L. 99.449, Oct. 7, 1986, 100 Stat. 1128, which enacted this section], has designated the rose as the National Floral Emblem of the United States and authorized and requested the President to issue a proclamation declaring this fact.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, RONALD REAGAN, President of the United States of America, do hereby proclaim the rose as the National Floral Emblem of the United States of America.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty-six, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and eleventh.

RONALD REAGAN

Taxonomic Hierarchy
Kingdom	Plantae -- Plants
Subkingdom	Tracheobionta -- Vascular plants
Superdivision	Spermatophyta -- Seed plants
Division	Magnoliophyta -- Flowering plants
Class	Magnoliopsida -- Dicotyledons
Subclass	Rosidae
Order	Rosales
Family	Rosaceae Rose family
Genus	Rosa L. rose
Species	Kalmia latifolia L. mountain laurel