Can an agency be prosecuted under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act?
Bald eagles are among the migratory birds protected by the MBTA. Although the MBTA does not protect habitat, a modification to eagle habitat that directly takes or kills a bald eagle (such as cutting down a nest tree with chicks present) would constitute a violation of the MBTA, as well as the BGEPA. ). Take is defined under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, possess, or collect. • New definitions applicable to the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act Take is defined, for the BGEPA, as to “pursue, shoot, shoot at, poison, wound, kill, capture, trap, collect, molest or disturb” a bald or golden eagle. Disturb means to agitate or bother a bald or golden eagle to a degree that causes, or is likely to cause, based on the best scientific information available, 1) injury to an eagle, 2) a decrease in its productivity, by substantially interfering with normal breeding, feeding, or sheltering behavior, or 3) nest abandonment, by substantially inte
