Federally protected in the US by the Migratory Bird Act of 1918, possession of brown pelican feathers is a major no-no. Migratory Bird Act was a mostly direct response to the decimation of bird populations so ladies could have a hat adorned with feathers. The law makes zero differentiation between feathers fallen off a fully healthy, living bird as part of natural processes, and one that you acquired from shooting and killing the bird.
Brown Pelicans were nearly killed off due to DDT, until it was outlawed. Since DDT bioaccumulates in their food web, the pelicans were laying eggs with shells so thin due to DDT that just during the process of incubation the parents would invariably crush their eggs. The banning of DDT allowed the bird to be removed from the Endangered Species List in 2009.
I think Brown Pelicans might be my favorite bird.
