Guilford County, NC Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)
Key Facts
- County-wide bird ordinance
- None; parks-only protection
- Governing park section
- Sec. 13-7, Molesting animals
- Scope
- County-owned parks and recreation areas only
- Enforcement
- G.S. 153A-123 remedies, plus trespass
- Prior city/town sanctuaries
- Preserved under Sec. 5-8
Summary
Guilford County has no county-wide bird-protection ordinance for the unincorporated area. Section 5-8 only keeps alive bird sanctuaries a city or town had already designated before the 2013 rewrite of chapter 5. The one enforceable ban on harming birds is Sec. 13-7, which applies solely inside county-owned parks.
Sec. 5-8. Previous designations of bird sanctuaries by cities or towns in Guilford County are unaffected by adoption of this chapter and remain in effect... Sec. 13-7. It shall be unlawful for any person to trap, catch, wound, kill, or cause to be injured; treat cruelly, tease, attempt to trap, catch, wound, kill, injure, or tease any bird or animal; or molest or rob any nest of any bird or any lair, den or burrow of any animal at any park.
Full Breakdown
Chapter 5's animal ordinance touches birds only in passing: Sec. 5-8 states that prior bird-sanctuary designations made by cities or towns in Guilford County survived the county's November 2013 rewrite of the animal control chapter, but the county did not create any new sanctuaries of its own. The operative bird-protection rule is instead found in Chapter 13, the parks ordinance, which by Sec. " Sec. 13-7, "Molesting animals," makes it unlawful to trap, catch, wound, kill, injure or tease any bird, or to molest or rob the nest of any bird, anywhere inside a county park.
That prohibition sits alongside Sec. 13-6, which separately bars dogs, horses and other animals from running at large in county parks. Enforcement of the parks chapter runs through Sec. S. 153A-123, and a person who continues violating chapter 13 after being told to stop can be ordered to leave the park immediately and prosecuted for trespass if they refuse. Outside of county-owned parks, migratory and native bird protection in Guilford County falls to state and federal wildlife law rather than to any Guilford County ordinance.
Violations & Fines
Robbing a nest or killing, trapping or injuring a bird in a county park violates Sec. 13-7 and can be enforced through any remedy available under G.S. 153A-123. A violator who is asked to leave the park and refuses can be charged with trespass under Sec. 13-20. There is no separate fine schedule specific to bird offenses in chapter 13.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does Guilford County protect birds outside its parks?
Is it illegal to rob a bird's nest in a Guilford County park?
Are older city-designated bird sanctuaries still valid in Guilford County?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Guilford County
Compare Guilford County to another location·View the North Carolina animal ordinances overview
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