Migratory Bird Treaty Act

Note:the following text is England|Ecology’s standard legal text used for biological reports. The primary purpose of this text’s existence on this website is to provide a landing page for hyperlinks in footnotes in smaller documents, where there may not be adequate space for explanations of the laws and policies that underpin the report.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 (MBTA) is a federal law governing the taking, killing, possession, transportation, and importation of various birds, their eggs, parts, and nests. The take of any number of a bird species listed as protected on any one of four treaty lists is governed by the MBTA's regulation of taking migratory birds for educational, scientific, and recreational purposes and requiring harvest to be limited to levels that prevent over utilization. The MBTA also prohibits taking, possession, import, export, transport, selling, purchase, barter, or offering for sale, purchase or barter, certain bird species, their eggs, parts, and nests, except as authorized under a valid permit (50 CFR 21.11). In 2025, the US Fish & Wildlife Service issued a memorandum eliminating the incidental take provision of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Nearly all native bird species, including this nesting Allen’s Hummingbird (Selasphorus sasin), are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Photo by Marcus C. England of England|Ecology.