Wednesday, January 28, 2026

Question: According to a popular myth, what did Benjamin Franklin want to be the national bird instead of the bald eagle?

Answer: Legend has it that Ben Franklin lobbied for the turkey, not the bald eagle, to be the national bird. The apocryphal story originated from an unpublished letter in which Franklin, criticizing the seal design of the Society of the Cincinnati, a hereditary society, jokingly compared the two birds, calling the eagle “too lazy to fish for himself” and the turkey, “tho’ a little vain and silly, a Bird of Courage.”