Charlottesville, VA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

City Code § 4-16 designates the entire area within Charlottesville's corporate limits as a bird sanctuary, one of the broadest wildlife protections in the animal chapter. It is unlawful for anyone to trap, hunt or shoot a bird or wild fowl, or to attempt to do so, and it is likewise unlawful to tamper with or rob the nest of any bird or wild fowl. The section separately bars killing 'any sparrow, martin, wren or other bird,' language that sweeps in ordinary backyard songbirds, not just game species.

Two species are carved out of the protection by name: pigeons and starlings are excluded under § 4-16(c), so those two birds can be trapped, hunted or killed without violating this section. ' Enforcement of § 4-16 falls to the city's animal control officer, who investigates complaints of trapping, hunting, shooting or nest disturbance within city limits. Because the section applies citywide with no zone carve-out, it reaches private yards and gardens the same as parks and public land, and the only exception the code writes into the section itself is for pigeons and starlings.