I spent some time on the beach in Florida. There were a lot of Pelican feathers at the high tide line. I briefly considered gathering up a handful and using them to fletch some arrows. Before I did I checked the laws. The law explicitly states that possession of a protected bird feather is punishable by law. Doesn't matter how you got the feather, just that you have it. I did a little more checking. The law was passed by Teddy Roosevelt. At that time, whole species of birds, Sand Hill Crane, Whooping Crane, Great Blue Heron, White Egret were being wiped out by feather hunters for ladies hats. Seems that the best feathers were on breeding birds, so they were shooting them wholesale and they didn't have any chance to reproduce. So the law was written to keep ladies from buying hats with feathers. Who wants a hat that can send you to jail.
As the law reads, you can possess the feathers of anything that you can legally hunt. I think you can possess feathers of invasive species (Starlings), but I'd check on that as well. Other than that it is all bad.
A friend of mine picked up a Blue Jay feather and put it in her hat. She was at an event and a Conservation Officer saw the feather. She got a $135 fine for having the feather.
So bottom line, Owl Feather Bad, Turkey feather good.
