What noted statesman once expressed a preference for the turkey instead of the bald eagle as the national bird of the U.S.?
Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act the endangered and threatened species list. In addition, these birds have become a national symbol. The second Constitutional congress decided upon using American bald eagles as the great seal of the United States. There were many disagreements with the choice of national symbol. For example, one of the founding fathers, Benjamin Franklin quoted, "I wish that the bald eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country, he is a bird of bad moral character...Besides he is a rank coward..." He thought that the national bird should have been a wild turkey, because it is "A bird of
Bald eagle Technical Bulletin. In 1984, the National Wildlife Federation listed hunting, power-line electrocution, and collisions in flight as the leading causes of eagle deaths. Bald eagles have also been killed by oil, lead, and mercury pollution, and by human and predator intrusion at nests. The species was first protected in the U.S. and Canada by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty, later extended to all of North America. The Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, approved by the U.S. Congress in 1940, protected the bald eagle and the golden eagle, prohibiting commercial trapping and killing of the birds. The bald eagle was