Boulder, CO Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 6-1-35(a) bars anyone in the city from knowingly shooting at, wounding, killing, capturing, ensnaring, netting, trapping, or injuring a wild bird, and separately bars damaging the eggs or nest of a protected bird. The prohibition extends to landowners: a property owner who knowingly permits someone else to do any of those things is also liable. This sits inside the city's Bird Protection Sanctuary, created by Section 6-1-33, which declares the entire city "a sanctuary for the refuge of protected birds" based on findings that lethal control methods are often ineffective and can harm nontarget species, and urges residents to use mechanical or structural methods to discourage nesting rather than lethal ones.

Section 6-1-34 separately bans poisoning any wild bird or distributing poison meant to poison one. Section 6-1-35(b) lists six affirmative defenses, including incidental capture while removing a bird or nest from a structure such as a sidewalk covering, action needed to protect an existing structure or resolve a verified health or safety hazard under a Section 6-1-39 special permit, purely humanitarian capture-and-release, and activities by Humane Society of Boulder Valley employees, veterinarians, Colorado Division of Wildlife staff, City Park Rangers, City Wildlife Managers, permitted wildlife rehabilitators, or holders of a federal depredation permit.

Because 6-1-35 sets no penalty of its own, a violation is punished under the general penalty in Section 5-2-4: up to $2,650 in fines, up to ninety days in jail, or both.