Wednesday, June 27

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The American bald eagle.

Ubiquitous as an emblem, the number of actual birds dropped to just 417 nesting pairs in the contiguous 48 states by 1963, according to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service. This was despite federal protection for the bird that started in 1940 and continued with an official designation of endangerment in 1967, even before the Endangered Species Act became law.

The current number of nesting pairs is at least 9,789, the wildlife service said on its Web site, crediting efforts by federal, state and local governments, conservation groups, corporations, native tribes and American individuals.

Bald eagles, native to most of North America, are now present in 49 states. They were never endangered or threatened in Alaska and are still present there; they are not tropical birds and never were present in Hawaii.
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The bird's removal from the endangered species list -- it was designated as threatened in 1995, a less severe status than endangered -- would not leave the bald eagle unprotected.

Federal law prohibits killing, selling or otherwise harming eagles, their nests or eggs. Bald eagles may not be disturbed, which means they may not be agitated or bothered to a degree that they are injured or that their normal breeding, feeding and sheltering behavior are substantially interfered with.

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