We have a pair of barred owls who patrol the neighborhood, keeping the local rodents at bay and making suitably spooky noises. They're good to have around and a lot of fun to listen to on a dark night. A couple of months ago, I noticed that one had dropped a feather in the yard, and the question of legality of taking it inside came up.
So, off to the interwebs to look... and ugh, that Federal Register business is overwhelmingly complete, to the point that in less than half an hour of reading you're not make heads or tails of it. Fortunately, some time ago a reporter summarized it in this article.
Short answer: Generally, wild bird feathers are illegal to own, so don't. The legal reasoning is somewhat contorted, but it comes down to owls and most other birds are illegal to hunt, it is also illegal to traffic in their parts, it's impossible to sort out a "found" feather from a "killed for" feather, so practically it's only possible to enforce by a blanket rule making ownership illegal. Pick it up and examine? Nobody's going to kick in your door for that, but don't take it inside.
Huh. Learn something new around here every day. Wish I'd thought to snap a picture of it. Untouched and still on the grass, of course.
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