Bird Forensics

Guest: Pepper Trail, Senior Forensic Scientist and Ornithologist, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service You can’t just kill a hummingbird and turn it into a good luck charm–which is something people do. You can’t leave an oil slick open for birds to get trapped in–which is something companies do. You can’t serve wild woodcock to diners–which is something a restaurant did. You can’t possess the feather of a bald eagle–you probably knew that. The point is, there’s a lot of crime being committed in violation of laws that protect migratory and endangered birds in the US. And those crimes need forensic scientists to solve them.