Two US men have been charged with illegally killing about 3,600 birds, including bald and golden eagles.
Simon Paul and Travis John Branson allegedly shot the birds over several years and sold parts and feathers on the black market.
They were charged with conspiracy, violating the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, and illegal trafficking.
The two men were ordered to appear in court in January.
An indictment publicly released on Wednesday alleges that they killed birds on the Flathead Indian Reservation in western Montana and elsewhere.
The indictment said Mr Branson sent messages bragging about “committing felonies” and going “on a killing spree”, and that the pair sold the birds and their feathers for “significant sums of cash”.
At one point, the men laid out a deer carcass to attract the birds before shooting them.
The indictment lists 13 separate instances of alleged violations of the Eagle Protection Act, but prosecutors did not specify what other types of birds the men killed or if many were rare or endangered.
Prosecutors declined to give further details when contacted on Wednesday.
Credit: http://bbc.com
