[crobertsbmw]

I have a weakness in that I always give people the benefit of the doubt. So I suspect that people are shooting these birds “for sport,” not realizing they are protected birds. I wonder if posting more signage to educate shooters that there are bald/golden eagles or whatever in the area, if that would help mitigate this at all. Maybe I’m too optimistic.

[anigbrowl]

I have a weakness in that I always give people the benefit of the doubt

I had that too. Grow out of it. 30-35% of people are assholes.

[lost_tourist]

I think sociopathy is a spectrum and at least 10% of humans are members

[eigh0xohyeib6Te]

All birds of prey and migratory birds are protected under federal law and I've never met anyone plinking at birds that didn't already know it was illegal.

[WD-42]

Why would you shoot any bird sitting on a utility pole, protected or not? There’s no sport in that.

[BurningFrog]

The hunting urge runs deep. I've felt it.

[rolph]

grouse are tasty, but hitting utility equipment can be quite expensive.

[_Microft]

If someone has no idea what they are shooting at then maybe they shouldn’t be wielding a weapon at all?

[gcheong]

Shooting road signs is illegal. Go to any rural area and count the bullet holes in any road sign with a deer on it.

[NoZebra120vClip]

Where I used to live, when we took a road trip, we always looked forward to passing the sign where some joker had stuck a round red reflector to the nose of a prancing deer road sign.

[bigbillheck]

Pretty much all birds in the US have been protected for over a century.

[LinuxBender]

Many of them since 72 anyway. [1] The birds I've had challenges with are Magpies. They kill the Finches including one breed that is the state bird Western Meadowlark that I feed but I found that if I can lure some Crows here they scare off the Magpies. I wish I knew how to keep the Crows around all the time. It's fun listening to them talk to one another. Farmers used to get paid to turn in Magpies but now they are under federal protection.

[1] - https://www.audubon.org/news/the-history-and-evolution-migra...

[behringer]

That has nothing to do with education... Education is in an egregiously pitiful state at this time. Why would you expect people to even know birds are protected when a quarter the country can't read and another quarter can barely do so?

[systems_glitch]

Just as likely someone's shot at them due to killing chickens or something. Not that it makes it right. We had a neighbor back home get a huge fine for shooting at black vultures after they'd killed several calves one year (unlike turkey vultures, black vultures will kill, rather than just eating carrion).

[jsiepkes]

How is shooting animals for sport any better then shooting them because they are a nuisance? Sounds way worse to me actually.