Nine sovereign countries fly a national flag with an eagle on it in everyday civil use: Albania, Mexico, Egypt, Zambia, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia and Zimbabwe. Albania's black double-headed eagle on red is the best-known of them, and it has been the national flag since independence was declared in Vlorë on 28 November 1912. The count depends on two rules. First, the eagle has to be on the flag itself, either alone or as the main part of a coat of arms on the flag, so eagles found only on a national emblem (Iraq, Palestine and Yemen use the Eagle of Saladin that way) do not count. Second, the flag has to be the one that ordinary citizens fly. Under those rules Serbia and Zimbabwe are borderline cases, explained below. A wider circle includes government-only flags (Germany and Poland), a US territory (American Samoa) and two flags that carry condors rather than eagles (Ecuador and Bolivia).
All the eagle flags at a glance, 2026
| Flag | Bird | How it appears | Current design since |
|---|---|---|---|
| Albania | Black double-headed eagle | Alone, centred on red | 1992 (star removed) |
| Serbia (state flag) | White double-headed eagle | In the coat of arms, towards the hoist | 2004, redrawn 2010 |
| Montenegro | Gold crowned double-headed eagle | In the coat of arms, on red with a gold border | 13 July 2004 |
| Mexico | Golden eagle eating a snake | National arms in the white stripe | 16 September 1968 |
| Egypt | Eagle of Saladin | Gold emblem in the white band | 4 October 1984 |
| Zambia | African fish eagle | Orange eagle in flight at the fly | 24 October 1964 (modified 1996) |
| Zimbabwe | Zimbabwe Bird (probably an eagle) | Soapstone bird in the white triangle | 18 April 1980 |
| Kazakhstan | Steppe eagle | Gold eagle under a 32-ray sun | 4 June 1992 |
| Moldova | Dark-gold eagle with a cross | Coat of arms on the yellow stripe | 27 April 1990 |
| Germany (federal authorities) | Federal eagle | Bundesschild on the tricolour | 1950 |
| Poland (official use abroad and at sea) | White Eagle | Coat of arms in the white stripe | White Eagle crowned again 1990 |
| American Samoa (US territory) | Bald eagle | Holding a war club and fly-whisk | April 1960 |
None of the current designs is very old, even though some of the birds are. Every sovereign civil flag on the list was adopted or redrawn in 1964 or later, because new states, new constitutions and changes of regime all tend to bring a new version of the national emblem.
Double-headed eagles of the Balkans: Albania, Serbia and Montenegro
Three neighbouring Balkan states fly the double-headed eagle, a motif with roots in Bronze Age carvings from Mesopotamia and the Hittite lands. Its modern use goes back mainly to the Palaiologos dynasty of the Byzantine Empire. From the 13th century it appeared in Albania, Serbia, Russia and the Holy Roman Empire.
Albania has the plainest and boldest version: a black silhouette on a red field with nothing else on it. The design is credited to Skanderbeg (Gjergj Kastrioti), who led a revolt against the Ottomans from 1443 and fought under a red banner with a black double-headed eagle, modelled on the Byzantine imperial flag. The Kastrioti arms became the flag of the League of Lezhë, and his resistance kept parts of Albania independent until 1479. The flag has changed with each regime since 1912. King Zog added a crown, the Italian occupation added fasces, and in 1946 the communist government put a star above the eagle. The star was removed on 7 April 1992, and Law No. 8926 of 22 July 2002 set out the current specifications.
Serbia flies a red, blue and white tricolour that has been used in various forms since 1839. The state flag adds the lesser coat of arms: a white (silver) double-headed eagle taken from the medieval Nemanjić dynasty, with the Serbian cross on its breast shield. The oldest known drawing of a Serbian flag appears on Angelino Dulcert's portolan chart of 1339, which shows a red double-headed eagle on white. The plain tricolour without the arms is also a legal national flag, which is why Serbia sits on the edge of the main list.
Montenegro adopted its flag on 13 July 2004, while it was still part of the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro. It kept the flag after independence in 2006 and wrote it into the 2007 constitution. The red field has a gold border, and in the centre is the coat of arms drawn by Radoslav Rotković: a gold crowned double-headed eagle with a lion passant on its shield. The arms take up two-thirds of the flag's height, so the eagle dominates the whole flag.
Mexico's golden eagle and the founding of Tenochtitlan
Mexico's eagle illustrates a founding legend. The coat of arms in the white stripe shows a golden eagle standing on a prickly-pear cactus and eating a rattlesnake. It comes from the Aztec legend that the Mexica would build their city where they saw that sign on a lake. The city they built was Tenochtitlan, which is now Mexico City. Versions of the eagle were used during the War of Independence, and the green, white and red tricolour followed independence from Spain. In 1916 a decree by Venustiano Carranza turned the eagle from a front-facing pose to the side-on pose it has today. The present flag was adopted on 16 September 1968 and confirmed by law on 24 February 1984. A 1984 proposal to let the eagle face right on the reverse of the flag was written into the law in 1995. The meaning of the design, and of its colours, is covered in our post on the flag of Mexico.
Egypt's Eagle of Saladin, Zambia's fish eagle and the Zimbabwe Bird
Egypt uses the red, white and black bands of the Arab Liberation Flag, first raised after the 1952 revolution. A gold Eagle of Saladin sits in the white band. Between 1972 and 1984 Egypt used the Hawk of Quraish of the short-lived Federation of Arab Republics instead, and the eagle came back on 4 October 1984. The eagle is named after the 12th-century sultan Saladin. It is traditionally linked to a large stone eagle on the west wall of the Cairo Citadel, which Saladin built, although historical sources do not confirm that the carving was his emblem. Egypt's flag article adds that the bird also recalls the Egyptian vulture of ancient hieroglyphs. Iraq, Palestine and Yemen use the Eagle of Saladin on their coats of arms, but not on their flags. Syria, which used the Hawk of Quraish, adopted a different eagle emblem on 3 July 2025.
Zambia adopted its flag at independence on 24 October 1964. It is green with an orange African fish eagle flying above a block of red, black and orange stripes. Both the eagle and the stripes sit at the fly edge, which is unusual, since most flags put their emblem in the centre or at the hoist. The eagle stands for the people's ability to rise above the nation's problems. In 1996 the green was made lighter and the eagle was redrawn to match the one on the coat of arms.
Zimbabwe is on the list with a caveat. The bird in the flag's white triangle, adopted on 18 April 1980, is copied from soapstone carvings about 40 cm tall found at Great Zimbabwe, the medieval stone city the country is named after. Wikipedia describes the bird as probably a bateleur eagle or an African fish eagle. It is stylised enough that no one can say for certain which species it is.
Kazakhstan's steppe eagle and Moldova's eagle with a cross
Kazakhstan has the only eagle on a sky-blue field. The flag was adopted on 4 June 1992 to replace the Soviet-era flag and was designed by Shaken Niyazbekov. A gold steppe eagle soars beneath a sun with 32 rays, and a gold ornamental pattern called qoşqar-müiız ("ram's horns") runs down the hoist. The official explanation says eagles appeared on the banners of Kazakh tribes for centuries and that this one stands for freedom, power and flight towards the future. The turquoise stands for the sky and for the unity of the Turkic peoples. The flag's history is set out in our post on the flag of Kazakhstan.
Moldova uses a blue, yellow and red tricolour, the same colours as Romania's flag. The two flags were told apart by adding the coat of arms to the yellow stripe. The tricolour was adopted on 27 April 1990, which Moldova now celebrates as Flag Day. The arms, also adopted in 1990, show a dark gold eagle holding an Orthodox cross in its beak and an olive branch in place of the sword on Romania's arms. On its breast is a shield with an aurochs head, a rose, a crescent and a star. Without the eagle, Moldova's flag would look almost the same as Romania's.
Government-only flags, American Samoa and the Andean condors
Some countries keep the eagle off the flag their citizens fly and put it on an official version instead. Germany's national flag is the plain black, red and gold tricolour. Since 1950 federal authorities have flown the Bundesdienstflagge, which adds the Bundesschild, a shield with the federal eagle. Anyone else who flies it can be fined. Poland's white and red flag is plain too. A version with the White Eagle coat of arms in the white stripe is legally reserved for official use abroad and at sea. That eagle lost its crown under communist rule from 1944 and got it back in 1990.
American Samoa, an unincorporated US territory, adopted its flag in April 1960. A bald eagle in the white triangle holds two symbols of Samoan chiefs: a uatogi war club and a fue fly-whisk. The eagle represents the territory's link to the United States. The whisk and club are said to show that Samoans can compromise but can also defend themselves.
Condors, which are vultures and not eagles, appear on two South American flags. Ecuador's national flag has carried the coat of arms with an Andean condor on top since its design was finalised in 1900. Bolivia's state and war flag adds a coat of arms topped by a condor, while the civil flag is the plain red, yellow and green tricolour. Other birds turn up on flags too, from Papua New Guinea's bird-of-paradise to Kiribati's frigatebird and Dominica's sisserou parrot. They are rounded up in our guide to flags with animals, the wider family that the nine eagle flags belong to.