Coastal Georgia: Land of the Free, Home of the Eagle

Strength. Pride. Determination. What does America’s symbol of the bald eagle mean to you? Let us discover the bald eagle’s significance to the Founding Fathers and its importance to Georgians today.

Symbolism That Runs Deep

Since ancient times, eagles have been symbols of strength, courage, freedom, and immortality. For instance, the Roman army employed the eagle as their emblem, and in the Christian tradition, the eagle was considered the king of birds and an ideal leader. As such, it was likened to Christ, the divine king.

Shortly after the creation of the Declaration of Independence in July, 1776, the Continental Congress tasked Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson, and John Adams with designing an official seal for the new nation. However, they as well as two subsequent committees failed to create a design to win Congress’ approval.

Finally, in mid-June 1782, Secretary of Congress Charles Thomson chose what he thought were the best elements of each design and made the eagle – introduced in the third committee – more prominent. While the original design employed a white eagle, Thomson recommended it be a bald eagle, since it is indigenous only to North America. Congress adopted this design on June 20, 1782, and the bird’s appearing on official documents, currency, flags, public buildings, and other government-related items meant it became an American icon.

A Disappearing Symbol

However, this American icon began to disappear from its native habitat. In the late 1800s, the United States was home to 100,000 nesting bald eagles, but their numbers soon plummeted due to habitat destruction and hunting. A new threat arose when bald eagles began eating prey contaminated with DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane), a pesticide that came into wide use after World War II. By the 1960s, there were only around 400 breeding pairs of bald eagles left in the continental United States.

In Georgia in the early twentieth century, bald eagles commonly nested along the coast, in the Okefenokee Swamp, and occasionally elsewhere in the state. However, by 1970, Georgia possessed only one known successful nest on St. Catherines Island. In the next decade, there were no known successful nests in Georgia.

Time For Change

Subsequently, both the United States and Georgia made adjustments. The United States outlawed DDT use in 1972 and passed the Federal Endangered Species Act the following year. Also in 1973, Georgia enacted the Endangered Wildlife Act, which allowed listing and protection of rare animal species. It also made the bald eagle an endangered species on the state’s Protected Wildlife List in 1974.

After no known successful nests in Georgia from 1971 to 1980, the Department of Natural Resources documented an eaglet fledging from a nest on Ossabaw Island in 1981. The state continued to see improvement so that by 2022, bald eagles’ nests totaled 229, resulting in 227 fledged eaglets. In 2023 along Georgia’s coast, 89 eaglets fledged from 59 nests. This far exceeded the 50 eaglets fledged from only 34 successful coastal nests the year before. Today, one-third of eagles’ nests are found in Georgia’s six coastal counties.

Thanks to federal protections and regulations involving DDT, the nation’s bald eagle population recovered enough for the bird’s status to change from endangered to threatened in 1995. In 2007, it was removed completely from the United States’ list. However, in Georgia it is still listed as threatened and a species of conservation concern.

See Them For Yourself

Where may you spot bald eagles in Georgia? The easiest way to observe them during nesting season, between November and February, is by visiting Berry College’s nest cam. The best places to spot bald eagles in the wild are on barrier islands, large reservoirs, and rivers during the winter months, since an influx of wintering eagles from the North increases the local population. Eagles are especially abundant in coastal areas of Chatham County and on or near Sapelo and Cumberland Islands.

While we may celebrate the eagle at Independence Day for what it symbolizes to America, here in Camden County we may celebrate it for other reasons: resilience, as its numbers have continued to grow, and local pride, as our area hosts some of the largest numbers of these majestic birds in the state.

Want to learn more about Cumberland Island and its natural habitat? Come on our Cumberland Island Walking Tour: Haunting Ruins and Wild Horses!