A feather? Seriously?
What looney toon lib in Congress do we have to thank for that?!
Back in the early 1900s feathers were high fashion- used on people’s hats and other clothing items. Exported. Sold everywhere in vast quantities- because they were “free” to anyone who hunted for them. Some has even used complete taxidermied songbirds, flickers, woodpckers, etc. Collecting txidermied birds, displayed under glass bells, was also in fashion.
The most prized feathers were from birds in breeding plumage, so most of the killing not only destroyed the adults but also all the offspring they would have produced. The long breeding plumage of herons was in big demand.
The senseless slaughter drove many birds to the brink. Pink spoonbills, Great White Egrets, Snowy egrets, Blue Herons, gallinules, rails, colorful Carolina parakeets, buntings.
Birds such as cardinals were captured for the pet trade.
The law was in reaction to that, and it worked. The problem is that once the fashion of the time ended, the law didn’t lapse but lingered. And any effort to remove now common and thriving species from it is doomed because special interest groups will smear anyone suggesting a removal.