Jacksonville, NC Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 4-90, adopted by Ordinance No. 04-06 on January 20, 2004 and last amended in 2022, declares the territory within Jacksonville's corporate limits a bird sanctuary and bars hunting, killing, maiming, injuring, trapping or otherwise taking any bird there, along with destroying, robbing or molesting a nest, egg or breeding place. The city relies on its home-rule authority under G.S. § 160A-188, which lets a North Carolina city establish a bird sanctuary within its own limits. Two exceptions narrow the ban. First, the ordinance does not protect a bird classified as a pest under G.S. chapter 113, article 22A, the Structural Pest Control Act of 1995, or the North Carolina Pesticide Law of 1971, so licensed pest control work against nuisance birds remains legal.

Second, a person may take an otherwise protected bird under a permit the state wildlife resources commission issues under G.S. § 113.274(c)(1a), or under any other commission license or permit specifically made valid for taking birds inside the Jacksonville city limits. Because the sanctuary designation runs to the entire corporate limits rather than a park or preserve, the prohibition follows the city boundary itself, covering residential yards, the Western Boulevard commercial strip and Jacksonville Commons alike, wherever they sit inside city limits rather than in unincorporated Onslow County.