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Anyone here collect bird feathers here? (1 Viewer)

R

reverejack

Active member
I have been collecting for quite a while now, and have baked up a collection of owl feathers, vulture feathers, mockingbird feathers, phoebe feathers, duck feathers, woodpecker feathers, etc. I just wanted to know if anybody else collects feathers here.
 
Did you know that possession of feathers or any other parts of migratory birds (pretty much all non-game or non-introduced species) is illegal in the United States? The US Fish and Wildlife Service has pretty severe penalties, especially if threatened or endangered species are represented (e.g., some raptors). The law is in place to restrict commercial trade in birds, which has decimated some populations in times past (e.g., the millinery trade in feathers in the early 20th Century.

Andy
 
Kratter said:
Did you know that possession of feathers or any other parts of migratory birds (pretty much all non-game or non-introduced species) is illegal in the United States? The US Fish and Wildlife Service has pretty severe penalties, especially if threatened or endangered species are represented (e.g., some raptors). The law is in place to restrict commercial trade in birds, which has decimated some populations in times past (e.g., the millinery trade in feathers in the early 20th Century. Andy
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I believe there are somewhat similar restrictions in UK, and also some applicable to transferring feathers between countries...

Happy New Year!
MJB
 
"Did you know that possession of feathers or any other parts of migratory birds (pretty much all non-game or non-introduced species) is illegal in the United States? The US Fish and Wildlife Service has pretty severe penalties, especially if threatened or endangered species are represented (e.g., some raptors). The law is in place to restrict commercial trade in birds, which has decimated some populations in times past (e.g., the millinery trade in feathers in the early 20th Century.

Andy" Well now i am aware of it, but i never kill a bird to get my feathers, i just find them on nature walks and such.
 
reverejack said:
Andy" Well now i am aware of it, but i never kill a bird to get my feathers, i just find them on nature walks and such.
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It doesn't matter, by law, we are supposed to leave the feathers where they lie. Some reasoning to this would be that other birds would use them for nest building.
 
This is part of the Migratory Act

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA), codified at 16 U.S.C. §§ 703–712 (although §709 is omitted), is a United States federal law, at first enacted in 1916 in order to implement the convention for the protection of migratory birds between the United States and Great Britain (acting on behalf of Canada[1]). The statute makes it unlawful to pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill or sell birds listed therein ("migratory birds"). The statute does not discriminate between live or dead birds and also grants full protection to any bird parts including feathers, eggs and nests. Over 800 species are currently on the list.
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Well, that's something I didn't know! Fortunately I've never collected any feathers I've found (just the odd photo). I guess that the difficulty in proving where the feather came from, how it was obtained, makes it more effective if applied to all feathers rather than having to prove that they were obtained by nefarious means.
 
Picking up shed feathers for ones personal delectation does no harm at all and I would have thought that the chances of prosecution for such a "crime" are virtually nil. Just don't put them on public display or advertise too loudly that you have them and you'll certainly be all right. I suspect many birders have small collections of shed (or bird-of-prey plucked) feathers that they've picked up over the years. I know I have.

The reason that the law was written so strictly, to apply to any feather collecting, including the harmless casual variety, is to make it easier to obtain convictions in serious cases by eliminating the "I was just picking up a few feathers for fun" defence.
 
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It makes you wonder when you watch a programme like Springwatch and they show feathers to camera and ask people to guess what bird they came from. How do they get around the law - are they perhaps from museum collections?
 
JTweedie said:
It makes you wonder when you watch a programme like Springwatch and they show feathers to camera and ask people to guess what bird they came from. How do they get around the law - are they perhaps from museum collections?
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Maybe there's no such law in the UK?
 
"Picking up shed feathers for ones personal delectation does no harm at all and I would have thought that the chances of prosecution for such a "crime" are virtually nil. Just don't put them on public display or advertise too loudly that you have them and you'll certainly be all right. I suspect many birders have small collections of shed (or bird-of-prey plucked) feathers that they've picked up over the years. I know I have.

The reason that the law was written so strictly, to apply to any feather collecting, including the harmless casual variety, is to make it easier to obtain convictions in serious cases by eliminating the "I was just picking up a few feathers for fun" defence." Would you like to see a picture of my collection?
 
JTweedie said:
I'm pretty sure there is and I think it's lumped into the same legislation as that dealing with egg collecting. Happy to proven wrong though!
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In the UK I'm pretty sure it's only specific species of which it is illegal to have in your possession "any part" of the bird live or dead, which includes feathers, skulls etc. Some species such as certain gamebirds, wildfowl & most corvids etc. are exempt. :)
 
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I did it long ago. It is popular in Poland, and very good to interest people who want to have some "material thing" from their hobby.

Some young people now have amazing collections, especially if they know plucking post of local Sparrowhawks. Also, several rarities were detected from feathers (like Steppe Eagle).

Law situation in Poland was rather muddled, because it was legal, then forbidden together with anything to do with birds, then something like grey area. Last time I checked, wildlife protection law specifically allowed collecting feathers.

Also, knowing feathers helps conservation. Many rare breeding birds were discovered by feathers (especially finding an unknown nest of large raptor plus some feathers).

Worldwide, Congo Peacock was famously discovered as unknown feather and matched to a bird only 23 years later. One of the last proofs of existence of Ivory-billed Woodpecker was a feather found in the nesting hole.
 
JTweedie said:
I'm pretty sure there is and I think it's lumped into the same legislation as that dealing with egg collecting. Happy to proven wrong though!
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Here it is, Section 1, Part 2 of the Wildlife and Countryside Act 1981:


(2)Subject to the provisions of this Part, if any person has in his possession or control—
(a)any live or dead wild bird or any part of, or anything derived from,such a bird; or
(b)an egg of a wild bird or any part of such an egg,
he shall be guilty of an offence.

I have to admit I wasn't aware of that. I don't really collect feathers as such, but I do have a few Capercaillie tail feathers and a White-tailed Eagle flight feather. All moulted feathers picked up from the ground. I can't imagine the police will be putting in too much effort to pursue this sort of thing.
 
I've picked up quite a few over the years - my favourite being a tail feather from a Rufous Bush Chat that I picked up from an unfortunate road kill ;( I used it as a bookmark in the old Hamlyn guide back in the early 80's.
 
One big reason for banning feather possession was due to the popularity of feathered hats in women's high fashion in the early 1900's. Bird feathers in women's stylish hats were widely used and 'trappers' for lack of a better term would literally pull feathers out of birds live and just leave them featherless prone to prey...or kill them just for the feathers. Eventually the Audobon Society in America protested this trade as well as the equivalent bird conservation/protection societies in european countries. So, they made a wide spread ban on possessing feathers since there was no way to discern how a person obtained the feather(s).
 
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