Postal Service releases special edition bald eagle stamps for America's 250th

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — For America's 250th birthday, the U.S. Postal Service is releasing special edition stamps featuring one of the nation's icons: the bald eagle.

The stamps unveiled Thursday at the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, Minnesota, showcase the bird across five major life stages, from a fuzzy hatchling to the iconic white-headed adult depicted on the country's seal. They were available for immediate purchase across the United States.

“The fact that we’re seeing the eagles in all different stages of its life, it’s sort of making us look back at the stages of the life of our country,” said Steve Kochersperger, a historian at the Postal Service. “At one time, we were just fuzzy little hatchlings, too.”

The bald eagle has been a national emblem since Congress adopted the Great Seal in 1782, though it wasn't designated the national bird until 2024.

The bird has long symbolized American values like strength, freedom and independence, said Kochersperger. At the top of the food chain, the bald eagle dominates in the sky alone with its impressive wingspan and sharp talons.

Some believe Benjamin Franklin wanted the wild turkey to be the national bird because the eagle steals food from other birds, but Kochersperger said that's a myth.

There's another reason why it makes a strong American symbol: the bald eagle is a major conservation success story. In the 1960s, eagles became a rare sight in the U.S. because of poisoning by the pesticide DDT.

But that decline was reversed, thanks to a 1972 DDT ban and the bald eagles' listing as an endangered species in 1978.

“The public relations campaign brought greater awareness that, ‘Hey, this is our national symbol, but they may all be gone if we don’t change our ways,’” Kochersperger said. “And that turned out to be very effective.”

In 2007, the bald eagle was removed from the endangered list, and there are now more than 300,000 eagles in the continental United States, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

David Sibley, the Massachusetts-based artist and bird watcher behind the stamp collection, said the conservation story is part of what makes him think of the bald eagle as a symbol.

“Maybe seeing a bald eagle on the stamp as a bird, living its life from nestling to adult, will hopefully make people think about the natural world and how important things like eagles are, not as a symbol but as part of the ecosystem around us,” he said.

Sibley spent nearly a year working on the digital illustrations for the collection. As someone who usually draws life-sized birds, the tiny stamp size was perhaps the biggest challenge, so he chose to focus on the bald eagle’s head to show as much detail as possible.

Postage stamps have long served as a way to celebrate holidays and highlight American culture, but they can also be educational, if you look closely.

“A stamp does not demand your attention, but it rewards it,” Kochersperger said. “A tremendous amount of planning and effort went into producing that tiny little piece of paper.”

This image provided by the United States Postal Service shows a new bald eagle stamp being released Thursday, May 14, 2026, featuring two four-week-old eagles. (United States Postal Service via AP)

This image provided by the United States Postal Service shows a new stamp being released Thursday, May 14, 2026, featuring an immature adult bald eagle. (United States Postal Service via AP)

This image provided by the United States Postal Service shows a new bald eagle stamp being released Thursday, May 14, 2026, featuring two fuzzy hatchlings. (United States Postal Service via AP)

This image provided by the United States Postal Service shows bald eagle stamps being released Thursday, May 14, 2026, featuring five stages of eagle development, from hatchling to adult. (United States Postal Service via AP)

This image provided by the United States Postal Service shows a new stamp being released Thursday, May 14, 2026, featuring an adult bald eagle. (United States Postal Service via AP)

PUNTLAND, Somalia (AP) — Most of Abdi Ahmed Farah’s hundreds of goats have died. It has not rained steadily in this part of Somalia for three years, something the 70-year-old never thought possible.

He is in debt from buying water. The reservoir outside his tent is nearly empty. His family is down to one meal a day: rice with sugar and oil. The youngest of his 22 children was born three weeks ago and his wife produces only occasional drops of breast milk.

“I have considered abandoning my family because I cannot provide for them,” said Farah, sitting in front of dwindling food supplies, as if on guard.

Yet another drought is affecting millions of people across Somalia, one of the world's most vulnerable countries to climate shocks. Some rivers are dry. Crops have withered. Experts say the drought could be among the worst in Somali history.

The crisis is compounded by aid cuts, most dramatically by the Trump administration, and rising prices from the Iran war. Somalia buys most of its fuel from the Middle East, and 70% of its food is imported.

Production of staple crops of maize and sorghum in the October-December rainy season was the lowest on record in Somalia, according to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.

Food security experts warn that nearly a half-million children might face severe acute malnutrition, the harshest kind. That would be higher than the number of children requiring treatment for it during droughts in 2011 and 2022, according to UNICEF.

"2026 is the worst year on record for Somalia in terms of drought,” said Hameed Nuru, the U.N. World Food Program director for Somalia. “Children have started dying.”

The Somali government and United Nations estimate that 6.5 million people face crisis levels of hunger, representing a third of the country’s population and a 25% increase since January.

Aid agencies are trying to maximize resources and the Somali diaspora is sending money to help, but humanitarian workers warn it is not enough.

“This drought is not just another cycle of dry season. It’s a repeated climate shock with shrinking humanitarian support,” said Mohamed Assair, a manager with Save the Children in Puntland, a semi-autonomous region.

Farah once had 680 goats, but a lack of food and water as well as diseases exacerbated by drought have claimed all but 110 of them, barely clinging to life.

“There is no market for my goats because they are so thin. Previously we would trade them for rice, but now we can’t,” he said. Farah’s family has been at a site outside Usgure village for 10 days. Almost a dozen goat carcasses lie nearby.

In Usgure, home to 700 families, community leader Abshir Hirsi Ali said the local economy has collapsed because they rely on pastoralists like Farah. Shops have closed and food rations have run low.

A recent, brief shower brought puddles of dirty rainwater. “Some families were so desperate they drank it … now there is a high number of people with fever,” Ali said.

Save the Children occasionally brings free water to Usgure, but private water trucks have quadrupled their prices and the cost of a 50-kilogram (110-pound) bag of flour has increased by a third, to $40.

“I’m not only afraid for my family but the future of the whole village,” said Muhubo Tahir Omar, a 47-year-old mother of 11 children.

Omar, like other parents, had sold her goats to pay for school fees, “but when we didn’t pay, the teachers left.” Her last goat is now sick.

Decades of conflict in Somalia have displaced millions of people. The drought has displaced another 200,000 this year, the U.N estimates.

Some families flee across harsh landscapes with limited supplies.

“People are on the move … and when people move, people die,” said Kevin Mackey, the Somalia director for humanitarian group World Vision. He recently met people who had walked for nine days to get aid in Dollow in the south.

Around 80 families live in a displacement camp outside Shahda village in Puntland.

Shukri, a 20-year-old mother of four, usually can eke out one meal a day from handouts. Now there is nothing to eat and limited access to clean water.

“The children got diarrhea (from dirty water) and malnourishment worsened,” said Shukri, who gave only her first name. “I know a few people who have died.”

Many people head to Mogadishu, the capital, where food also remains scarce.

Fadumo, a 45-year-old mother of seven, moved there from Lower Shabelle, where livelihoods were already threatened by al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants.

“The water sources we depended on for farming, including the river, dried up,” Fadumo said. “Conflict made our situation even worse, forcing us to flee."

Drought ravaged Somalia in 2022 and an estimated 36,000 people died, according to the U.N. Now the kind of aid that was rushed to respond to such crises is shrinking.

“Unless there is a sudden and substantial response from donors, the outlook is deeply concerning. A drought of similar severity in 2022 received a response five times greater than what we are seeing,” said Antoine Grand, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Somalia.

Aid funding to Somalia dropped to $531 million in 2025 in large part because of aid cuts by the United States, which had been Somalia's top donor. In 2022, aid funding was nearly five times as much at $2.38 billion.

WFP said it intended to help 2 million people with food aid this year but has reached only 300,000 because of funding gaps.

A center at the hospital in Qardho, Puntland, treats children with severe acute malnutrition. But therapeutic milk is now rarely in stock, and nurses resort to homemade alternatives such as cow's milk, said director Shamis Abdirahman.

The center receives around 15 children a month, but they expect more as displaced people arrive.

One 4-year-old, Farhia, weighs a scant 7.5 kilograms (16.5 pounds). Her eyes are sunken and her bones are prominent under her skin.

Her family fled to Qardho when all of their goats died, said her mother, Najma.

“I don’t know what to hope for, or see how we can get back to what we had,” she said.

Faruk reported from Mogadishu, Somalia.

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Abdi Ahmed Farah stands among the carcasses of his goats, that died of hunger in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

Abdi Ahmed Farah's wife, Absheera Ali, sits with her children outside their home in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Wednesday, April 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

The carcass of a camel that died from hunger lies in an open field in Usgure, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

Four-year-old Farhia, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, looks through a window at a hospital in Qardho, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)

A mother looks at her daughter, who is suffering from severe acute malnutrition, at a stabilization center in a hospital in Qardho, Puntland, Somalia, Friday, April 17, 2026. (AP Photo/Jack Denton)