Senate swoops in, centuries late, to name bald eagle national bird

Mike Magner | (TNS) CQ-Roll Call

WASHINGTON — In the rush toward recess last week, the Senate moved to correct an oversight that many Americans might not even be aware of when lawmakers passed a bill to designate the bald eagle as the national bird.

Since it was engraved on the Great Seal of the United States in 1782, the eagle has been universally assumed to be the country’s national bird, just as the Baltimore oriole is the state bird in Maryland and the robin is so named in Connecticut, Michigan and Wisconsin.