“For nearly 250 years, we called the bald eagle the national bird when it wasn’t,” Jack Davis, co-chair of the National Bird Initiative for the National Eagle Center, said in a statement. “But now the title is official, and no bird is more deserving.

The bird of brown and white feathers has long represented the United States as a majestic and soaring symbol, but only this week did a law make it official.

Though a longstanding symbol of "independence, strength and freedom," according to Congress, the bird of prey never received a formal designation