HI:
FYI

--
Ian Paulsen
Bainbridge Island, WA, USA
A.K.A.: "Birdbooker"
"Rallidae all the way!"

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 25 Jun 2004 00:16:00 EDT
From: SJPeterson at AOL.COM
To: BIRDCHAT at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU
Subject: [BIRDCHAT] Bird nests for sale on eBay

HI BIRDCHAT,

A few days ago someone posted on another listserv, HUMNET-L, about a
hummingbird nest being offered for sale on eBay. Several of us on that list did some
further research and discovered that a number of nests (some with eggs) of a
variety of species are being offered for sale on that auction forum in direct
violation of federal law and even eBay policy. Similarly, one seller is
offering 95 large feathers for sale -- many look like raptor feathers.

A few HUMNET folks contacted the person selling the hummingbird nest, and it
was promptly removed and an apology issued via another similar "auction."
Some of us have even written to the other folks selling wild bird nests with
varying degrees of success. In the last couple days, three sellers have consented
to pull their auctions, but the rest either ignore our comments or attempt to
justify their auctions ("My birds live here all year long and are not
migratory" or "My nests are starling nests and are not protected by law" -- even
though the nests in the photos are open-faced nests of "woven grass" and are about
the size of an adjacent pop can provided for scale).

Anyway, this discussion has left the realm of "Hummingbird" for discussion on
HUMNET, and the BIRDCHAT listowners gave permission to bring it up here. It
may seem like trivial stuff, but I think the Migratory Bird Treaty Act
http://migratorybirds.fws.gov/intrnltr/treatlaw.html was enacted in part to protect
against this exact sort of thing -- the transaction of native birds and their
parts, explicitly including eggs and nests. I doubt any one of us have never
had a nest in our house before -- or at least kept a jay or owl feather on our
dresser at one point or the other. But when folks start buying and selling
these items in violation of the law, that's another matter that probably needs
to be addressed head on.

For the record, eBay does state in their policy
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/wildlife.html that they prohibit selling bird nests of "migratory
birds" -- which is partly where the blame lies. eBay policy focuses too much, I
believe, on the term "migratory" -- and even though they state that this applies
to "ducks, geese, hawks, owls, crows, and ravens," readers who even take the
time to read the policy apparently don't include their robins or vireos or
whatever in that category.

Anyway, aside from alerting the wider BIRDCHAT community to these violations,
I hope that some of you will be prompted to take up this conservation flag
and act on it with me. eBay has been notified of these auctions through form
"report violations" emails, but we have found it difficult to actually contact
or get a response from a human, either through email or other means aside from
snail-mail -- which we will do. To date, there has been no visible action on
the part of eBay against these auctions. Would wider support help? Perhaps.
And it might encourage the sellers to pay more attention to the rules and
laws if they received polite emails from more than a couple people.

USFWS law enforcement has been notified and they appear genuinely interested
and appreciative of our efforts, but they will pursue it "when time and
resources allow" which my pessimistic side says, well, not anytime soon.

At present I'm monitoring 27 nests for sale from 13 sellers who have
disregarded our emails. One seller is even offering 10 nests at once. Some nests
include eggs or egg fragments. Two recent small nests sold today for $14.50 and
$15.18, respectively. If you would like more information on how to get
involved in acting on these violations, write me. If you have any ideas on what
else we can do, please feel free to comment as well. BIRDCHAT represents a wide
variety of bird and conservation expertise that I think will be helpful...

Whattcha think?

--Stacy

^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^
Stacy Jon Peterson
4442 Sijan St. Apt. A
Mtn Home AFB, ID 83648
email: stacy at trochilids.com
^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^
HUMMINGBIRDS: http://trochilids.tripod.com/
^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^...^v^

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