Quote Originally Posted by Heroique View Post
This may be hard to believe, it might even sound preposterous – and I don’t mean to sound like a crazy, out-of-control wildlife enforcement officer – but if that’s a red-tailed hawk’s feather (or any migratory bird’s feather), and you picked it up and brought it home, you’ve broken the law.

Even had you picked it up, admired it, and promptly set it back down where you found it, you’ve broken the law. Even if you found it in your yard, on your window sill, in the middle of a hiking trail, even if it’s road-kill, or window-kill, you’ve broken the law.

All thanks to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, in force since 1918.

I know there very specific permits for Native Americans who collect migratory bird feathers for religious purposes, also for game birds in season, taxidermy, and researchers.

The fines are astronomical. Up to $15,000 for a conviction, even $100,000 for eagle feathers.

Now if that’s a non-migratory bird’s feather, or invasive bird’s feather, you’re good to go!

I was walking on a friend's ranch in West Texas a few years ago and found a bunch of vulture feathers. I of collected them and took them to his house where he told me I could not keep them. His wife, a Choctaw, said she could keep them and did. I knew about raptors and owls, but not other birds. That said in the early 80s my wife and I found a barn owl dead beside the road and took it home. She is a painter and at that time was painting a series of owls. After calling around to taxidermy folk I found out we could not keep it. We donated it to our local natural history where they preserved it as a teaching pelt.