When I was reenacting in Indiana, we had alot of concern over feathers. It wasn't a heraldry issue, but conservation. Not unlike AA's situation, we had to be aware of the birds from which we got our feathers. Many of our events were at parks run by one government or another (county, state, fed...), so we were always careful not to grab the attention of the DNR folks present. Even if it were taken off the ground, there were certain species (breeds?) that we couldn't use. I think I ended up with turkey.