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"The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you're not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as "majestic" and "noble," yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation's founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples lived beside it peacefully with that when others, whether through hunting bounties or DDT pesticides, twice pushed Haliaeetus leucocephalus to the brink of extinction. Filled with spectacular stories of Founding Fathers, rapacious hunters, heroic bird rescuers, and the lives of bald eagles themselves-monogamous creatures, considered among the animal world's finest parents-The Bald Eagle is a much-awaited cultural and natural history that demonstrates how this bird's wondrous journey may provide inspiration today, as we grapple with environmental peril on a larger scale"--… (more)
User reviews
According to Jack E. Davis the Bald Eagle has never been officially made the National bird of the United States, although our government websites list them as such.
No president or
This is the way Davis begins this book about the Bald Eagle and from there takes the reader on an interesting journey that covers the history of the Bald Eagle beginning with the story of how it became the symbol that graced the Great Seal of the United States, and through to present day.
Davis explores the eagle’s long history, not just as an American symbol, but the behaviors of the bird, its habits, etc., dispelling myths, and examining human interactions with the great bird, and how it nearly became extinct, not once, but twice.
“Humans had made the world confusing for the bald eagle. They had saddled the top predator with an undeserved reputation for being a tyrant and shameless coward, and ornithologists had affirmed that reputation. Yet, paradoxically, Americans also put the bald eagle up on a symbolic perch, where it asserted the ennobling virtues of a great nation.”
The Eagle has a split personality it seems- greatly admired and revered by some, but by others, the bird does not impress. Farmers and the Audubon society expressed disdain towards the Eagle.
The native people gave the eagle spiritual connotations, but the bird has often been a frequent target- not just from guns, but from poisons. But the Eagle, with the help of its champions has survived against all odds.
The bird is often a model for artists, there are sports teams named after it, and celebrities have attached their names to the conservation cause.
Thankfully, there were programs put in place that saved the Eagle, and attitudes toward the bird became more enlightened as people have become more conscious and informed about ecology, and about animals’ relation to humans, while stupid myths have been debunked.
Overall, this comprehensive history of the bald eagle is fascinating, but is also an easy and enjoyable book to read.
This book could easily be 100 pages less without any loss to the topic.
The last couple of chapters were the best as they talked mostly about eagles, whereas the first