Memphis, TN Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 8-4-4(A), in the Livestock and Fowl chapter, prohibits killing or attempting to kill any bird other than domestic fowl within Memphis city limits, subject to the exceptions the section itself creates. Subsection B is the operative exception for the city's most common nuisance-bird complaint: to control pigeon populations and address public distress and public health, private residential property owners and public commercial property owners may destroy or otherwise remove pigeons or other birds located within their own property boundaries, and dispose of them following the sanitation services department's procedures.

Property owners can also contract the job out, the section allows hiring pest control companies that are properly licensed and bonded by the state, and those companies must likewise dispose of trapped birds according to sanitation services procedures rather than on their own terms. Subsection C protects two categories of birds from the property-owner exception even if trapped along with pigeons: any homing pigeon identified by a registered leg-band must be released immediately, and any protected wild bird caught among trapped pigeons must also be released at once.

Subsection D draws a hard line on method: the section 'shall not be construed to permit the use of firearms to destroy pigeons and birds, and such use is expressly prohibited,' so shooting is never a lawful removal method even on one's own property.