The bird that Ben Franklin wanted for the American symbol was the Wild Turkey!
Wild Turkey makes a great whiskey, now.

Rothbardian_fanatic

Politics_And_Law

Dewey is Hitler, 1948

Bell_curve

American Eagle as a Phoenix 

http://greatseal.com/mythamerica/EagleHeadTurn.gif

Here is a little debunking http://greatseal.com/mythamerica/mythobverse.html

Of course debunking is a always done when secrets start coming out 

>The eagle was not first a phoenix. Both an eagle and a phoenix appear together in the design suggested by the third Great Seal committee. And the phoenix was an appropriate, positive symbol "emblematical of the expiring Liberty of Britain, revived by her Descendants, in America." 