Reminder: Bird Nests Are Protected by Law

Excerpts from ENS News:
WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2002 (ENS) - Even when nesting birds make a mess around houses and buildings, it is illegal to harm them, warns the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS).
The Act prohibits destruction of nests with eggs or young, or possession of migratory bird parts. Violations can carry maximum penalties of $15,000 and/or six months in jail.
It is not a violation, however, to prevent the birds from constructing their nests, and non-native birds such as starlings and house sparrows are not protected under the Act.
"A bird must be just beginning to build it's nest - just a few sticks or pieces of mud," said Anne Badgley, director of the UFSWS Pacific Region. "However, sometimes people wash down a nest and don't pay attention to the site for a week or so, only to find the nest has been reconstructed and has eggs in it. Once the nest has eggs, it is protected and its destruction or removal is illegal."
An active nest - one with eggs or young - may be removed only under a special permit issued by the USFWS. These permits are issued only if the USFWS determines that a nest poses a hazard to human health or safety.
Complete text: http://ens-news.com/ens/apr2002/2002L-04-22-09.html#anchor8

Well then, I know a cat who needs to spend 6 months in jail. I was so unhappy to be the remains of a mourning dove who had been nesting.

Wow...bird eggs, sea turtle eggs and so on are more protected than fertilized human eggs! Very interesting. I think that's somewhat backwards.
I, however, wouldn't bother a nest if it were somewhere I didn't want it...unless it was a hazard. I'd just let it go and prevent it from happening the next time. Even though it would be in a place that bugged me, I would be happy to see the little baby birds chirping away. But I think the whole thing about protecting an animal "fetus", while not protecting a human "fetus" is all wrong. We should at least apply the same standards to the highest life form on the planet (human beings). That's a whole new storyline though.

who says we're the highest life form? maybe the Chimps are just letting us have our way.

Mark :-)

lol...yeah, maybe so. Only thing is, I haven't seen any chimps or dolphins (another animal supposedly smarter than us) build any space shuttles and orbit the earth or otherwise leave their natural environment...lol I've seen some pretty smart creatures, but none as intelligent as ourselves and none with the sense of being such as ourselves. I think we've got 'em beat :)

English sparrows are not protected-- at least not in my neck of the woods. And if I find that they are building nests in my bluebird boxes, I have absolutely no problem throwing their nests out onto the ground. They are mean little so-and-so's and have been known to kill female bluebirds sitting on a nest and will throw the eggs and young out onto the ground.

Last year English sparrows trapped and killed a little female barn swallow in one of my bluebird boxes in order to take it over. I was so mad, I duct-taped the entrance shut for two weeks!

hczone6, I applaud you! It's about time some of the hysterical dogooders got their priorities straight.

Don't get me wrong...I don't ever want to make someone feel like they can't post something or say what they believe, but I just think some of our laws are a little backwards. If someone other than a bluebird built a nest in my bluebird house, I'd pitch it for sure....but I'd leave anything else alone...that's just me. I do have bluebirds nesting every year, so I always make them the first priority.

Actually, I don't mind when the Barn Swallows use the boxes-- in fact, I encourage it. They are sweet little birds, but will gather en masse when they believe one of their nests is being threatened. Ironically, they also help protect the bluebird nests by doing this.

One of my boxes has bluebirds in it right now, and five little blue eggs. The second box has what looks like the beginnings of a Barn swallow nest. The third box had a wasp and the start of a wasp nest, and it was evicted post haste. ;-)

well the law better hang around then-cuz if i find a starling nest-its history along with a few others! I have tons of fruit and im not going to share!
I cant wait for them to change our statebird to the black capped chickadee-the robins are a PAIN and they dont even stay here and freeze-they run south!!!
Dont take it wrong I luv birds-cardinals,bluebirds,blue jays,woodpeckers and more...but those starlings come in hundreds and can clean a cherry tree of its fruit in a day!
So im on the look out for them!!!

I know what you mean about robins and fruit Notmartha...lol My wife's grandma who live next to us covers her blueberries with a net, but they still get at them. But I do have to say, it really breaks my heart to see the robins get caught up in the net and die or break a leg or wing...and it happens constantly. I've gotten so mad at her for that...lol I once tried to free a robin caught in the net, but it's leg was so tangled in the net that the only thing holding the leg on to the bird was a piece of skin...I almost cried after I let it free...with part of it's leg missing :( It was sad. So, I have 3 blueberry bushes of my own and the birds are welcome to every berry on the bush. If I want berries, I'll go to Kroger and buy them. I just can't do that to the birds, no matter how much of a pain in the rear they are. If I could find a way to protect the berries and not torture the the robins, I would. But since I can't, I figure they've got a free treat coming, in the form of 3 bushes full of blueberries :) Anyway, you can still pick plenty of them before the birds get them, but you just have to keep an eye on them. Heck, if my wife's grandma is so bent on having blueberries, I'll buy some for her myself...lol

LOL Its not the few robins-they only steal a few berries. Its the first 6 starlings that go home and tell 6 friends and so on till I have 100's of starlings swarming down, like a black cloud. I carry firecrackers and bottle rockets in my pockets-I hate to kill anything so the bangs you here from my house arent guns!
Its just a pain to stop every couple minutes to try to keep the lil thives out of the cherries n berries!!!
This yr Im getting a lug of sweetcherries! ;) i have 6 sour cherry trees-so i share those!=]

Oh the starlings are like weeds here too. Swarms of them, yes. I call them "weed birds"...because they're everywhere and you can't get rid of them...lol

LOL! Well I figured this would make an interesting thread... This newsletter came at a time when people have started talking about unwanted nests. I had no idea that many nests are protected by federal law until now, figured maybe I wasn't alone. The starlings sound like our laughing gulls except gulls don't share well, they find a french fry in a McDonalds parking lot and scream to all the other gulls that they've found food. When all the other gulls come in to share they fight to keep it, go figure!

The old German lady -feeds the gulls! My dog bolts over there to see what she has thrown out!
I call the starlings the same thing my daddy called them
cowshi* birds!!! weed birds is a good one!

Ok, this is odd. Not really related to the bird issue, but related to the protection of unborn animals and humans. Here's a classic example of the crazy laws we have. This story (see story & link below) shows us that a man can be convicted of "killing" someone, even before they're born...but if this woman were to go down the street and "terminate" her pregnancy of her own free will...well hey, she's just exercising her rights and it's totally legal. In fact, we should applaud her decision. You know, at least we should figure out for ourselves one way or the other, what is a human being and what isn't? Are unborn "babies" protected or not? It seems it's only a baby if you want it...and if you don't, it's just a fetus and therefore fair game for disposal. Nobody will ever win an abortion debate and I don't believe my text here will ever change someone's mind...but I at least would like to point out the hypocrisy and nonsense of some of our laws. Common sense should tell us that if it's wrong to stop a pregnancy "without" the mother's consent, it should be wrong to stop it "with" her consent as well. Just when is this thing a baby anyway? I guess it doesn't matter anyway...I learned in school that I'm just an evolved monkey...so I should expect this kind of behaviour. I don't even know why we have laws...lol...monkeys and dolphins have no laws, right? Taking this line of thinking to it's logical conclusion, I can do whatever I want and should never be expected to pay a price for anything I do...I'm just a monkey, so it's expected of me and I don't know any better. (I'm being sarcastic of course)

http://www.channelcincinnati.com/cin/news/stories/news-141788720020425-080436.html

Husband Convicted In Pregnant Wife's Death
Broe To Be Sentenced In June

CINCINNATI -- A Tri-State man was convicted Wednesday evening of killing his wife and their unborn child.

John Broe Convicted

A jury took two hours to find John Broe found guilty on two counts of aggravated murder and one count of tampering with evidence, WLWT Eyewitness News 5 reported.

John Broe beat Shannon Broe to death Sept. 7 with an aluminum baseball bat and dumped her body on the side of Interstate 71. Prosecutors said that he later returned to the spot where her body was dumped and moved it to a more secluded location near the Dana Avenue exit.

Evidence presented during the trial revealed that the argument that led to Shannon Broe's death was over John Broe's extramarital affair.

Shannon Broe was 20 to 25 weeks pregnant when she was killed. Her mother told WLWT that she was pleased with the verdict and the swiftness of the judicial system.


John Broe's attorneys said that Shannon Broe came at him with a knife, which forced John Bore to defend himself with the bat.

Prosecutor Michael Bachman said that Shannon Broe's alleged actions did not justify the end result.

"You don't have a license to go whack somebody until they're dead," Bachman said.



After Shannon Broe was reported missing, John Broe helped family members search for her body for several days. He maintained that he did not know what had happened to his wife.

John Broe told police that he came home late the night his wife disappeared and fell asleep on the couch without seeing her.

"Everybody's mad at me because I'm not showing emotion like everybody else," he said during the search. " I just don't know. I'm not sure of anything."

Broe will be sentenced June 7.

WLWT Eyewitness News 5 and ChannelCincinnati.com will continue to update this story as additional information becomes available.