Flightless Bird: Customs Seizes Stuffed Atlantic Puffin At BWI

BALTIMORE (WJZ) -- U.S. Customs and Border Protection specialists got quite the surprise when they found that a dead bird had flown to Baltimore.

A traveler from Iceland flew into BWI Thurgood Marshall Airport on June 2 along with a stuffed Atlantic Puffin.

Atlantic Puffins are prohibited under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, which makes it illegal for anyone to "take, possess, import, export, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs or such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations [50 CFR 10.13]."

Authorities released the traveler without penalty, but the stuffed migratory bird was seized by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

According to the National Audubon Society, puffins are not endangered, but they are a threatened species.

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