This year, 2016, marks the centennial of the treaty between the United States and Great Britain (for Canada) for the Protection of Migratory Birds. It often is called the Migratory Bird Treaty. Signed on Aug. 16, 1916, it has since had a major role in bird conservation. The treaty makes it "illegal for anyone to take, possess, import, export, transport, sell, purchase, barter, or offer for sale, purchase, or barter, any migratory bird, or the parts, nests, or eggs of such a bird except under the terms of a valid permit issued pursuant to Federal regulations," according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.