What it is
North America’s fish eagle and the national symbol of the United States. It is the only eagle native solely to this continent. Adults show the white head and tail. Younger birds stay mottled brown for years.
Range
North America. The published recovery counts are for the lower 48 states.
What happened
Shooting and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane thinned eggshells until the bird nearly vanished from the contiguous United States. Legal protection, nest-site work, and the 1972 United States ban on that insecticide reversed the crash. The species was removed from the Endangered Species Act list in 2007. It remains protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
When / status
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recorded 417 known nesting pairs in the lower 48 U.S. states in 1963, then 9,789 pairs at the 2007 delisting, then about 316,700 individuals and 71,467 occupied nests in the 2018 to 2019 data. The International Union for Conservation of Nature lists the species as Least Concern.
Human role
Shooting and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane caused the crash. The 1972 ban on that insecticide, Endangered Species Act work, and nest-site protection reversed it.
Sources
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service bald eagle species page; U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Bald Eagle Population Size: 2020 Update; Federal Register delisting rule, 2007.