State prosecutors in Basel have charged a Swiss citizen with a massive plumage pillage for stealing feathers worth millions of dollars from museum exhibits across the German-speaking world, the Swiss weekend newspaper Schweiz am Wochende reported on Saturday.

The 45-year-old man is reported to have targeted a variety of natural history museums in Switzerland, Germany and Austria, stealing feathers from 167 exhibits of various birds of prey.

Damage was put at around $6 million in monetary terms, although the loss to science was "immeasurable" as some of the exhibits were unique.

The suspect's aim was apparently to create his own collection of almost all the world's birds of prey, according to the report.