Bald eagle thriving to come off threatened species list

The American bald eagle - the national symbol whose decline helped spur the Endangered Species Act and a ban on the pesticide DDT - will be off the threatened species list this year, says a top Bush Administration official.

Craig Manson, the Government's point man on the Endangered Species Act, said it was time to concentrate on more needy species.

The birds still would be safeguarded under the federal Bald Eagle Protection Act of 1940, which prohibits killing or selling the animals.