An MSP has challenged attempts to make the golden eagle a national symbol of Scotland because of negative imperial connections.
The depiction of the bird will have been the last thing some people saw before being "marched to their deaths", Scottish Conservative politician Jackson Carlaw said.
An eagle was used with a swastika by the Nazis, as well as a symbol by the Roman legion.
"The golden eagle is the symbol of a empire that once invaded large parts of Scotland, and more recently of another empire that tried to," Mr Carlaw said.
"In the lifetime of many people in this country it was the last thing their relatives saw as they were marched to their deaths.
"It has been a symbol of imperial power of which Scotland is emphatically not, never has been, and hopefully never will be.
"Is an eagle - the symbol of imperial authority - the right national symbol for a democratic nation like Scotland?"
A "tenacious" robin would be a better symbol, he suggested.
Mr Carlaw spoke out as MSPs on the public petitions committee considered a call to make the golden eagle the national bird.
The petition was put forward by RSPB Scotland with support from wildlife cameraman Gordon Buchanan.
The film-maker later rejected Mr Carlaw's concerns.
"He's making a contentious point but I don't think if the symbol was shown to people in Scotland as the national bird, that anyone would see it as Nazi," he said.
The RSPB says there are 431 pairs of golden eagles in Scotland. Persecution of the birds mean they are confined to more remote areas of the country, the body says.
Mr Buchanan hopes formal designation could improve eagle numbers.
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