Albuquerque, NM Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 10-1-1-3(C) of the Revised Ordinances of Albuquerque, part of the city's Park Property rules, protects birds and other wildlife inside every city park. Subsection (C)(1) makes it unlawful to hunt, molest, harm, frighten, tease, shoot, or throw missiles at any bird, and it separately bars removing or possessing a bird's eggs, nest, or young. The only carve-out is for poisonous reptiles that pose an immediate threat; birds get no comparable exception. Subsection (C)(2) adds a feeding rule distinct from feeding wildlife generally: no one may give or offer food, tobacco, alcohol, or other noxious or injurious substances to a bird or wild animal in a park, and park users must clean up food scraps and wrappers that could attract wildlife.

The ordinance dates to Ord. 150-1971 and was last amended by Ord. 2024-046. A companion rule outside the park system, Section 5-8-6(F) of the Open Space Ordinance, separately bars feeding, harming, hunting, trapping, or collecting birds and other animals on the city's Open Space Lands and Regional Preserves, so the same conduct is regulated whether it happens in a neighborhood park or on Open Space trails. Neither section reaches the narrower feral-pigeon nuisance rule at Section 9-18-3, which addresses intentional pigeon feeding as a civil violation rather than bird harm.

Enforcement of the park rule falls to the Parks and Recreation Department and Albuquerque Police Department; the Mayor delegates comparable citation authority for the parallel Open Space provision.