Miami Beach, FL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sec. 10-6(a) declares 'all territory embraced within the city' a bird sanctuary, the broadest possible geographic reach: it covers public and private property alike, not just parks or beaches. S. Fish and Wildlife Service permit to destroy birds for scientific purposes. Subsection (c) separately bars using any pitfall, deadfall, scaffold, cage, snare, trap, net, salt-lick, blind-pen, bait-hook, bait-field or similar device, or any drug, poison, chemical or explosive, to injure, capture or kill game birds or wild birds within the city. Subsection (d) protects nests and eggs directly: no one may take or willfully destroy the nest or eggs of any game bird or wild bird, or even possess them.

5) and has not been narrowed since, so it applies today to the pigeons, shorebirds and wading birds throughout South Beach and the barrier island the same as it would to a protected species. Because chapter 10 places general animal-ordinance enforcement with the police department, fire department and code compliance officers under the Sec. 10-1 definition of animal control officer, a bird-sanctuary violation is handled through the same civil-infraction and special-magistrate process as other chapter 10 offenses unless it also implicates state or federal wildlife law.