If you are ever outside enjoying nature and you see a beautiful feather, you might be tempted to stop and pick it up.

While the impulse is natural, it is best to avoid it, as it is illegal in the United States.

Many would consider this one of those silly, outdated laws that should no longer be on the books, but when the law was made, it was necessary to help keep several species of birds from going extinct.

Back in the 1800s, hats that were decorated with feathers (and even entire dead birds) were the height of fashion for women. This went to extremes in high society.

History professor Douglas Brinkley wrote in The Wilderness Warrior:

“Some women even wanted a stuffed owl head on their bonnets and a full hummingbird wrapped in bejeweled vegetation as a brooch.”

People back at this time, just like people today, would go to great lengths to keep up with the latest fashion trends. Ambitious people would go to even greater lengths to provide the people with what they want, for a price.

So, with millions of women wanting a feathered hat, many people would hunt or trap various types of birds to make and sell them. According to the US Fish and Wildlife Service, tehre were more than 60 species of birds that were facing extinction by the turn of the century, many of them due to this trend.

At that point, there was little to no regulation on this industry, so those who were doing the hunting and trapping had no incentive to do it responsibly.

Harriet Hemenway and her cousin, Minna Hall, were prominent Boston socialites who heard that the fashion trend was causing so many birds to be in danger. So, they began advocating for change, and even held tea parties that had a ‘bird hat boycott’ theme.

Eventually, the Massachusetts Audubon Society campaigned to have the Lacey Act of 1900 drafted and passed.

This law made it illegal to kill birds in one state and sell them in another. It was an important first step in protecting birds.

Additional work by activists helped to draft and pass the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which is still the law in the United States today. This law makes it illegal to kill, capture, sell, trade, or transport any migratory birds (or parts of them, including feathers and eggs) without a permit (with some specific exceptions).

So, while you aren’t likely to get arrested for picking up a single feather from the ground for your own enjoyment, it is technically illegal. So, as with most things in nature, it is best to just enjoy them with your eyes and leave things as you find them, so other people can as well.

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