Feathers and Bone: The Migratory Bird Treaty Act

(Pictured above: left to right: legal non-native and domestic bird feathers (macaw and turkey), a replica barred owl skull, naturally shed red-tailed hawk feathers kept under my falconry permit for use in feather repair)

 This weekend I was asked to give a presentation about the Migratory Bird Treaty Act - the law behind why it's illegal (without special permit) to keep most native birds as pets, or own their feathers, nests, or eggs. Lots of people, including the group of environmental educators and naturalists that I presented to, are aware of the law, but fewer people know its origins or importance. 

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Let me tell you a story, one which is a great example of the quote “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” (Margaret Mead)

The date is 1886. American hunters are flush with cash, taking in riches from the wildlife resources available in the new world. Soft, water-resistant beaver pelts, massive bison robes, and bird skins by the millions, destined to be ornamental feathers (or entire taxidermied birds) on highly fashionable hats. 

Labrador ducks, Great Auks, Passenger Pigeons, Carolina Parakeets, and Heath Hens are all driven to extinction. Other species, including the Snowy Egret, teeter on the brink. Plume hunters find a nesting bird colony and devastate it. Within days, they can utterly destroy hundreds, or thousands of birds at once. They kill and skin mature birds, leaving orphaned hatchlings to die from starvation or predation. 

London was described as ‘the Mecca of feather killers’ – it was calculated that 130,000 egrets were consumed in a nine month period here in this year of 1886. Why? Largely for the fashion industry, where birds-as-decoration were a lucrative rage. The seemingly limitless resources of the newly-exploited American continent were being funneled back to Europe, creating great fortunes for many - at a great cost to wildlife.

Two Boston socialites, Harriet Hemenway and her cousin Minna Hall, were not not blinded to the devastation being caused by the fervor for feathers. Frustrated and impassioned by the peril of native birds and their utter lack of protection, they set off a revolt. 

Harriet and Minna started where they could, expressing their outrage with a series of afternoon tea parties to help convince Boston society ladies to turn against hats featuring bird feathers. These simple meetings caused the founding of a little group called the Audubon Society. (Maybe you've heard of it?) 

They were desperate to do more, and the Audubon Society soon had chapters in many states, and began hosting the still-running Christmas Bird Count, a holiday census of bird populations. The bird count was started as an alternative to take the place of the traditional “Side Hunt”, in which hunters competed to kill as many birds as possible. 

The year is now 1900, and congress passes the Lacey Act, the first U.S. federal law to protect wildlife. It prohibits transport of poached birds across state lines. The law was, unfortunately, poorly enforced and did little to slow commerce of feathers. Getting in the way of this lucrative business was dangerous – in 1905 a game warden in Florida was shot and killed while attempting to arrest a plume hunter. 

After a busy 20 years trying to push forward wildlife protection laws, In 1918, President Wilson signs the landmark Migratory Bird Treaty Act, or MBTA. This treaty, signed with Great Britain and Canada, is still one of the strongest laws protecting North American Wildlife. The MBTA outlawed market hunting of migratory birds, including nests, eggs, and feathers. It is a blanket law, and the justification for that extreme restriction is it eliminated the necessity of watching legislation in every state and combating numerous attempts to legalize the destruction of birds for private gain. 

Basically it was all or nothing – all birds could be harshly, completely protected, or loopholes would doubtless allow clever, motivated profiteers to find ways to exploit wild birds to extinction.

The year is 1920, and the past seven years have been a series of inconclusive court challenges – district courts often ruled the act as unconstitutional. As is the case for most new, groundbreaking laws, it was difficult to enforce such an unpopular law in face of huge potential profits. In a major challenge, the supreme court upheld the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, stating that the protection of birds was in the “national interest.” "Without such measures", the Chief Justice declared, "one could foresee a day when no birds would survive for any power—state or federal—to regulate".

In 1936, the United States signed a similar treaty with Mexico, and then went on to sign additional treaties with Japan and the Soviet Union. 

In 1940, Congress passed the Bald Eagle Protection Act (later amended to include golden eagles) to offer extra protections for these national emblems. 

In the 1970s, for the first time, the US govt. began charging not only private hunters, but oil, gas, timber, mining, and other utility companies. They were not directly targeting wildlife but incidentally causing millions of bird deaths each year that could be avoided with simple modifications. This was a huge win for wildlife, holding corporations accountable for damaging environmental actions. 

In 1972, the MBTA extended protection to an additional 32 families of birds. More have been added since, bringing the current total to 1026, almost every species native to the United States. The word “Migratory” is largely symbolic – it probably should be called Native Bird Treaty Act. 

A lot of things have happened since its inception, but in 2017 the largest hit to the MBTA happened when the Trump administration issued a new interpretation of the law which gives a free pass to industries that cause bird deaths. By no longer enforcing incidental takes, this amendment permanently changes the liability and prevents enforcement of industrial impacts, including oil spills, and removes incentives to protect native birds. 

What does this mean for you (as environmental educators)? 

It can be frustrating to be told you can’t save a beautiful feather you find lying on the ground, but there is no way to tell the difference between a naturally shed feather or one from a bird killed for profit, and trying to deal with that difference is an enforcement nightmare. For the welfare of all birds, this blanket ban offers intense protection which has allowed many once threatened bird species to rebound. In an ideal world, people could use wildlife resources ethically and responsibly, but in reality if you open the door to profit, exploitation can happen with shocking rapidity.

There is a full, updated list of protected species part of the MBTA on the FWS. GOV website, it is easily found. Non-native species, invasives such as house sparrows or starlings, or exotic species (like parrots kept as pets) are not protected under the MBTA (but they may fall under the endangered species law such as CITES). Native birds that are NOT covered under MBTA are many groups of game birds, such as ducks, geese, doves, or certain shorebirds, which can be hunted in season. This is why you can have a taxidermy wild mallard, but not a blue jay feather.

We all know the positive power of individual experience and hands-on experiences; If you are in need of props for a legitimate educational program or nature center, you can apply for a USFWS ‘salvage’ permit to be able to keep eggs, nests, feathers, skulls, etc. These forms can be found online. They are not impossible to get, but the application process is lengthy and discourages any casual use of these items. It is important to educate the public as to what the laws are, and that they cannot take bird nests, eggs, live birds, or feathers – but not only that they cannot, but why. It is one of those things that can be a personal inconvenience, but is for the greater good. Usually explaining (or better yet showing photos of) piles of thousands of dead, beautiful snowy white egrets destined for fashionable ladies’ hats has an impact in stirring the emotion behind why it’s so important to offer our wildlife such protections.

A great alternative, if you want to use wildlife props but don’t want to deal with all the paperwork, is to use domestic or exotic feathers in place of ‘wild’ ones. Handing around a colorful parrot feather to discuss feather structure is always a hit! Domestic turkey feathers can be varied and beautiful, and goose feathers look a lot like eagle feathers, and are even painted and used as replicas in some native american regalia. Replica skulls are often hard to distinguish from real ones, and are much more durable for people to touch and handle. Even if you have a salvage permit, it may be worth using replicas because of their durability  (and they are able to be cleaned!) - really consider if you need the 'real' thing, and how hard audiences are on props - they will most certainly be destroyed in time if used in regular programs. 

Props are fantastic tools to help teach the public about wildlife – getting hands on is helpful to create memorable experiences and can be an invaluable teaching tool. By understanding and following the laws in place to help protect native birds from exploitation, and encouraging others by having a positive attitude about the MBTA and helping people to connect emotionally with its necessity, we can help to battle the current negative attitudes and damaging legislation happening today. It is my opinion that corporations shouldn’t be able to profit from mass killings of birds and ignoring environmental consequences to their profited actions any more than private citizens are – and they (corporations) tend to have vastly greater impacts in conservation due to sheer scale.