The regulations of this Subchapter B are promulgated to implement the following statutes enforced by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service which regulate the taking, possession, transportation, sale, purchase, barter, exportation, and importation of wildlife:

The various parts of this subchapter B are interrelated, and particular note should be taken that the parts must be construed with reference to each other.

No statute or regulation of any State shall be construed to relieve a person from the restrictions, conditions, and requirements contained in this subchapter B. In addition, nothing in this subchapter B, nor any permit issued under this subchapter B, shall be construed to relieve a person from any other requirements imposed by a statute or regulation of any State or of the United States, including any applicable health, quarantine, agricultural, or customs laws or regulations, or other Service enforced statutes or regulations.

The regulations of this subchapter B shall apply to all matters arising after the effective date of such regulations, with the following exceptions:

(a) Civil penalty proceedings. Except as otherwise provided in § 11.25, the civil penalty assessment procedures contained in this subchapter B shall apply only to any proceeding instituted by notice of violation dated subsequent to the effective date of these regulations, regardless of when the act or omission which is the basis of a civil penalty proceeding occurred.

(b) Permits. The regulations in this subchapter B shall apply to any permit application received after the effective date of the appropriate regulations in this subchapter B and, insofar as appropriate, to any permit which is renewed after such effective date.

In addition and subject to definitions contained in applicable statutes and subsequent parts or sections of this subchapter B, words or their variants shall have the meanings ascribed in this subpart. Throughout this subchapter B words in the singular form shall include the plural, words in the plural form shall include the singular, and words in the masculine form shall include the feminine.

Aircraft means any contrivance used for flight in the air.

Amphibians means a member of the class, Amphibia, including, but not limited to, frogs, toads, and salamanders; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Animal means an organism of the animal kingdom, as distinguished from the plant kingdom; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Birds means a member of the class, Aves; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Country of exportation means the last country from which the animal was exported before importation into the United States.

Country of origin means the country where the animal was taken from the wild, or the country of natal origin of the animal.

Crustacean means a member of the class, Crustacea, including but not limited to, crayfish, lobsters, shrimps, crabs, barnacles, and some terrestrial forms; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Director means the Director of the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior, or his authorized representative.

Endangered wildlife means any wildlife listed in § 17.11 or § 17.12 of this subchapter.

Fish means a member of any of the following classes:

(1) Cyclostomata, including, but not limited to, hagfishes and lampreys;

(2) Elasmobranchii, including but not limited to, sharks, skates, and rays; and

(3) Pisces, including but not limited to trout, perch, bass, minnows, and catfish; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Fish or wildlife means any wild animal, whether alive or dead, including without limitation any wild mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian, fish, mollusk, crustacean, arthropod, coelenterate, or other invertebrate, whether or not bred, hatched, or born in captivity, and including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof.

Foreign commerce includes, among other things, any transaction (1) between persons within one foreign country, or (2) between persons in two or more foreign countries, or (3) between a person within the United States and a person in one or more foreign countries, or (4) between persons within the United States, where the fish or wildlife in question are moving in any country or countries outside the United States.

Fossil means the remains of an animal of past geological ages which has been preserved in the earth's crust through mineralization of the object.

Import means to land on, bring into, or introduce into, or attempt to land on, bring into, or introduce into any place subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, whether or not such landing, bringing, or introduction constitutes an importation within the meaning of the tariff laws of the United States.

Injurious Wildlife means any wildlife for which a permit is required under subpart B of part 16 of this subchapter before being imported into or shipped between the continental United States, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, or any possession of the United States.

Mammal means a member of the class, Mammalia; including any part, product, egg, or offspring, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Migratory bird means any bird, whatever its origin and whether or not raised in captivity, which belongs to a species listed in § 10.13, or which is a mutation or a hybrid of any such species, including any part, nest, or egg of any such bird, or any product, whether or not manufactured, which consists, or is composed in whole or part, of any such bird or any part, nest, or egg thereof.

Migratory game birds: See § 20.11 of this subchapter.

Mollusk means a member of the phylum, Mollusca, including but not limited to, snails, mussels, clams, oysters, scallops, abalone, squid, and octopuses; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Permit means any document designated as a “permit,” “license,” “certificate,” or any other document issued by the Service to authorize, limit, or describe activity and signed by an authorized official of the Service.

Person means any individual, firm, corporation, association, partnership, club, or private body, any one or all, as the context requires.

Plant means any member of the plant kingdom, including seeds, roots and other parts thereof.

Possession means the detention and control, or the manual or ideal custody of anything which may be the subject of property, for one's use and enjoyment, either as owner or as the proprietor of a qualified right in it, and either held personally or by another who exercises it in one's place and name. Possession includes the act or state of possessing and that condition of facts under which one can exercise his power over a corporeal thing at his pleasure to the exclusion of all other persons. Possession includes constructive possession which means not actual but assumed to exist, where one claims to hold by virtue of some title, without having actual custody.

Public as used in referring to museums, zoological parks, and scientific or educational institutions, refers to such as are open to the general public and are either established, maintained, and operated as a governmental service or are privately endowed and organized but not operated for profit.

Reptile means a member of the class, Reptilia, including but not limited to, turtles, snakes, lizards, crocodiles, and alligators; including any part, product, egg, or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof, whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

Secretary means the Secretary of the Interior or his authorized representative.

Service means the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of the Interior.

Shellfish means an aquatic invertebrate animal of the following taxa:

(1) Phylum Mollusca, including but not limited to, oysters, clams, squid, octopus, or cuttlefish; and

(2) Order Decapoda, including, but not limited to, lobsters, crabs, crayfish, shrimp or other crustaceans; and

(3) Any part, product, egg or offspring thereof, or the dead body or parts thereof (excluding fossils), of any species included in paragraphs (1)-(2) of this definition, whether or not included in a manufactured product or in a processed food product.

State means any State of the United States, the District of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Virgin Islands, and Guam.

Take means to pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect, or attempt to pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect. (With reference to marine mammals, see Part 18 of this subchapter.)

Transportation means to ship, convey, carry or transport by any means whatever, and deliver or receive for such shipment, conveyance, carriage, or transportation.

United States means the several States of the United States of America, District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, American Samoa, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Baker Island, Howland Island, Jarvis Island, Johnston Atoll, Kingman Reef, Midway Atoll, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll, and Wake Atoll, and any other territory or possession under the jurisdiction of the United States.

Whoever means the same as person.

Wildlife means the same as fish or wildlife.

(a) Legal authority for this list. The legal authorities for this list are the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA; 16 U.S.C. 703-712), the Fish and Wildlife Improvement Act of 1978 (16 U.S.C. 742l), and the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742a-742j). The MBTA implements Conventions between the United States and four neighboring countries for the protection of migratory birds, as follows:

(1) Canada: Convention between the United States and Great Britain [on behalf of Canada] for the Protection of Migratory Birds, August 16, 1916, 39 Stat. 1702 (T.S. No. 628), as amended;

(2) Mexico: Convention between the United States and Mexico for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Game Mammals, February 7, 1936, 50 Stat. 1311 (T.S. No. 912), as amended;

(3) Japan: Convention between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of Japan for the Protection of Migratory Birds and Birds in Danger of Extinction, and Their Environment, March 4, 1972, 25 U.S.T. 3329 (T.I.A.S. No. 7990); and

(4) Russia: Convention between the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics Concerning the Conservation of Migratory Birds and Their Environment, November 19, 1976, 20 U.S.T. 4647 (T.I.A.S. No. 9073).

(b) Purpose of this list. The purpose is to inform the public of the species protected by regulations that enforce the terms of the MBTA. These regulations, found in parts 10, 20, and 21 of this chapter, cover most aspects of the taking, possession, transportation, sale, purchase, barter, exportation, and importation of migratory birds.

(c) What species are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act? Species protected as migratory birds are listed in two formats to suit the varying needs of the user: Alphabetically in paragraph (c)(1) of this section and taxonomically in paragraph (c)(2) of this section. Taxonomy and nomenclature generally follow the 7th edition of the American Ornithologists' Union's (AOU, now recognized as American Ornithological Society (AOS)) Checklist of North American birds (1998, as amended through 2021). For species not treated by the AOS Checklist, we generally follow Clements Checklist of Birds of the World (Clements et al. 2007, as updated through 2021).

(1) Alphabetical listing. The table lists species alphabetically by common (English) group names, with the scientific name of each species following the common name.

(2) Taxonomic listing. The table lists species in phylogenetic sequence by scientific name, with the common (English) name following the scientific name. To help clarify species relationships, we also provide the higher-level taxonomic categories of Order, Family, and Subfamily.