Originally a spiritually important bird to many native nations that saw it as a messenger between us and the Great Spirit, it became known worldwide as the emblem for the United States of America. The Bald Eagle, ironically, was made endangered by the very people who founded this new nation.

Like many raptors of the mid-20th century, DDT - an insecticide - severely affected the reproductive cycle of the species by causing sterility or thin-shelled eggs. This brought a population of around 300,000-500,000 individuals in the 18th century to just 412 nesting pairs in the 1950s throughout the contiguous United States. Loss of habitat and illegal hunting affected them as well, though at a lesser rate. It was estimated by one ornithologist that 70,000 bald eagles had been shot in just 12 years in Alaska where the most populous group of Bald Eagles made their home.

Soon, the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940 was passed to prohibit trapping and hunting of the bird. But the main problem, DDT, was not banned from use until 1972 in the US and 1989 in Canada.

Almost immediately, the eagles population rebounded. In 1995, the bird was removed fro the US federal governments endangered species list and in 2007 was placed at ‘Least Concern’, neither threatened nor endangered. However, possession of their feathers is still seen as a criminal act if one does not possess a “Native American Religious Use” permit, causing some strife between the laws protecting the bird and the 1st Amendment.