I've said this to three or four people in the past month

[conuly]

which is weird, because most years I hardly say it at all.

Anyway, maybe saying it here will keep me from having to say it for a while!

If you're in the USA then you should know that it's not lawful to possess the feathers, eggs, nests, or any other item from or connected to most native birds. Yes, even if the bird shed that feather naturally or the egg and nest is from two years ago and isn't being used. This is a matter of international treaty.

Probably nobody's going to chase you down over it unless you're doing the very thing the law is intended to prevent, that is, selling those items or, worse, killing birds - but you should probably not post public photos about it either, not even on relatively unknown sites like Dreamwidth. Just keep your private feather collection private.

Comments

[hannah]

I volunteered at a bird rehab center until 2020 hit, and they had a box set aside for any recovered feathers to make sure nobody took them home. I can't remember if they included the pigeons or not - while they're an introduced species, it might've been simpler to say "all feathers" as a blanket policy.

[lilysea]

I've heard about bird rehab places re-attaching feathers

from bird A

to bird-that-is-missing-flight-feathers B

[hannah]

Imping, yes.

[conuly]

A blanket policy is a lot easier to enforce, that's for sure.