Found only in the Americas (Canada/Alaska, south through the U.S. to northern Mexico), the American Bald Eagle, our national symbol, is an opportunistic feeder.  While it prefers habitats that include plenty of open water for fish and waterfowl, it is not opposed to stealing its meal from ospreys, plus supplementing with occasional carrion of deer, squirrels, rabbits, etc. 

By the 1950s, the disastrous pesticide, DDT - with its eggshell-thinning properties that decimated bird populations - as well as deaths by shooting/habitat loss, brought the bald eagle population down to only 412 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states (824 birds!).  One of the first species listed under the Endangered Species Act in 1967, lawmakers finally mobilized against extinction.  40 years later, thanks to dedicated conservation efforts, the bald eagle was delisted in 2007, and today, sightings of bald eagles along waterways have become fairly common again.  As of 2019, an estimated 9,800 pairs are now breeding in the lower 48.