Bald eagles: scientists decry overturn of ban that would save American symbol

The national bird is threatened by toxic bullets that wind up in the animals it eats, but the Trump administration overturned a rule to stop it

His head twisted almost upside down and his body all but paralyzed, the bald eagle sat on its haunches, talons clenching, while two humans neared to put him in a cage. They could not save the bird from lead.

The eagle was the third this year to die from lead poisoning at the Blue Mountain Wildlife center, in north-east Oregon, where Lynn Tompkins has helped rehabilitate sick and injured birds for 30 years. "They eat things that have been shot," Tompkins said, "whether it's big game like deer or elk or coyotes or ground squirrels."