What goes wrong

It cannot lawfully be sold

Updated October 2026

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How it happens Products count too Native is the test, not rare So check the list before the listing Replicas are the clean answer And a buyer carries risk as well Write down what you have, honestly References

The most common version of this involves no wrongdoing at all, which is exactly why it keeps happening.

How it happens

Somebody finds a feather on a walk, or a nest after a storm, and puts it in a jar. Years later the collection is sold or given away. The statute names possession, sale, barter and purchase in the same sentence, and intent is not part of that sentence.

Products count too

Any product, whether or not manufactured, composed in whole or part of a migratory bird or any part, nest or egg of one. So a piece of craft work with a native feather in it is inside the description as surely as the feather alone.

Native is the test, not rare

The MBTA applies to native migratory species regardless of whether they are common. A very ordinary bird is as fully covered as a scarce one, which surprises people who expect the rule to track rarity.

So check the list before the listing

50 CFR 10.13 is published and searchable. Checking a species against it takes a minute and is the whole of the diligence available to a seller.

Replicas are the clean answer

For display and teaching they do everything the real object does and they can be handled. For a collection already holding real material, the realistic path is a permit conversation rather than a sale.

And a buyer carries risk as well

The Lacey Act names acquire, receive and purchase, so this is not only a seller’s problem. A specimen with no provenance is a specimen nobody should want.

Write down what you have, honestly

An inventory that distinguishes replicas, permitted specimens and anything of uncertain origin is what makes a collection transferable. Without it the uncertainty attaches to everything in the cabinet.

References

16 U.S.C. 703, Taking, killing, or possessing migratory birds unlawful. Subsection (a) makes it unlawful to possess, offer for sale, sell, barter, purchase, ship, export or import any migratory bird, any part, nest or egg of such a bird, or any product composed in whole or part of them. Subsection (b) limits the subchapter to species native to the United States or its territories. law.cornell.edu

50 CFR 10.13, List of Birds Protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, whose stated legal authorities are the MBTA at 16 U.S.C. 703-712, the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 and the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956, implementing conventions with Canada, Mexico, Japan and Russia. law.cornell.edu

16 U.S.C. 3372, the Lacey Act’s prohibited acts. Paragraph (a)(1) makes it unlawful to import, export, transport, sell, receive, acquire or purchase any fish, wildlife or plant taken, possessed, transported or sold in violation of any law, treaty or regulation of the United States or any Indian tribal law; (a)(2) extends it to interstate or foreign commerce for State and foreign law violations. law.cornell.edu

Written from federal statute and regulation, not from a collection room. Wildlife law is federal, state and sometimes tribal at once, and the Lacey Act makes a state or foreign violation a federal matter. Nothing here is advice on a particular specimen, and the permit questions belong to the Fish and Wildlife Service.