Collier County, FL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sec. 246-28(14) of the Collier County Code of Laws makes it an offense, within the boundary of any county park, public beach, beach access area adjacent to a county park, county-operated parking facility, or public area immediately adjacent to a county park, to injure, kill, molest, interfere or tamper with, destroy, collect, carry, transport, possess, or otherwise cause physical harm to any living shorebird or bird of prey, or to any nest of such a bird. The same subsection covers turtles, tortoises, sand dollars, shellfish and sea stars, reflecting Collier's Gulf-coast parks system and its sea turtle nesting beaches.

The only exception recognized is a permit expressly issued by the State of Florida or one of its agencies; there is no county permit that authorizes handling a protected bird. Enforcement runs through county park enforcement officers, commonly called park rangers, designated by the Board of County Commissioners under Sec. 246-26 and empowered to issue citations under Sec. 246-27 and Sec. 246-29 for any offense witnessed within park boundaries. A cited violator is directed to appear before the Collier County Code Enforcement Special Master but may instead elect a nonmandatory appearance and pay the scheduled civil penalty.

That penalty schedule, set countywide at Sec. 2-2044, runs $105 for a first offense, $255 for a second, and $405 for a third or subsequent offense if uncontested, capped at a $500 maximum civil penalty per violation if a person contests the citation and loses in county court under Sec. 2-2041. Park rangers designated under this article cannot make physical arrests and are exempt from state police-standards training requirements under Sec. 246-30, so a suspected wildlife crime is referred instead to the Collier County Sheriff's Office or the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.