Giving new life to feathers that can no longer fly

The Liberty Wildlife Non-Eagle Feather Repository

By Robert Mesta

Throughout their history, Native Americans have maintained a special relationship with the animals in their natural world, especially birds and their feathers. It is this relationship that shapes their belief system, manner of worship, ceremony, dance, and song.

Feathers are present in the celebration of birth, the passage to man and womanhood, marriage, the healing of the sick, and the recognition of death. The cycle of life. Feathers are both sacred and revered. The feather is the most iconic symbol in Native American cultures.

Critical to sustaining Native American cultures is their ability to obtain feathers from which they create religious, ceremonial, and dance regalia in the form of capes, skirts, dance bustles, headdresses, prayer fans, and healing implements used to express spiritual beliefs.

 

 

In 2010, Liberty Wildlife in cooperation with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) established the Liberty Wildlife Non-Eagle Feather Repository (LWNEFR). The LWNEFR is permitted by the Service to accept, hold, and distribute non-eagle feathers from federally protected birds to Native Americans for religious and ceremonial purposes. The goal of LWNEFR is to provide Native Americans with a legal source of feathers at no cost.

The goal of LWNEFR is actually two-fold. First, to help sustain Native American cultures by providing the feathers essential to their religious practices. Secondly, to discourage the purchase of illegal feathers. Every year thousands of birds are taken illegally out of the wild and their feathers sold on the black market. The LWNEFR provides a legal and no cost alternative to purchasing black market feathers, helping to conserve our native bird populations. We like to say that for every feather we send out, that’s one less that will be purchased illegally, and one less bird that is taken from the wild.

To maintain an inventory large and diverse enough to meet the growing demand for feathers, LWNEFR has developed a nationwide network of partnerships with feather donors. Feather donors include federal and state wildlife agencies, wildlife rehabilitators, zoos, non-profit bird organizations, bird sanctuaries, universities, museums, and other permitted sources. The Tucson Audubon Society is one of our partners, donating carcasses collected from their Bird Safe Buildings Program—thank you.

Feather selection process

The LWNEFR is a unique program as it has both a cultural and conservation focus. It supports Native American cultures and helps conserve our native bird populations at the same time. To date, the LWNEFR has shipped approximately 5,600 feather orders (carcasses, feathers, and parts) to Native Americans representing 247 tribes located in 46 of the 50 states.

The beauty of the LWNEFR is that it achieves all this by recycling feathers that would otherwise be discarded or destroyed. And thus, our motto: “Giving new life to feathers that can no longer fly.”

If you would like to learn more about the LWNEFR or have feathers to donate, please see libertywildlife.org for information or contact Robert Mesta, Director, LWNEFR at robertmesta@cox.net.

Robert Mesta is a retired U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ornithologist where he worked to protect, conserve, and recover threatened and endangered North American bird populations and especially birds of prey. He directed the recovery programs of California Condor, Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and the Masked Bobwhite Quail. Robert also coordinated the Sonoran Joint Venture, a bi-national bird conservation program between the United States and Mexico, 1999 to 2015.