Mobile, AL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)
Key Facts
- Coverage
- entire city corporate limits
- Protected species
- any songbird
- Exception
- nuisance/safety hazard only
- Enforced by
- Animal Services, police
Summary
Mobile has declared its entire corporate limits a bird sanctuary, making it unlawful to pursue, injure, capture, kill, or destroy any songbird within city limits, with a narrow safety exception.
The entire area embraced within the corporate limits of the city shall be a bird sanctuary. It shall be unlawful for any person or pursue, injure, capture, kill or destroy a songbird of any kind within the city. This section shall be construed so as to apply to the director, ACO, or law enforcement officer when a nuisance exists or when there is a hazard to health or safety which, in the judgment or the officer, cannot be otherwise remedied.
Official source re-checked September 7, 2026: no newer edition of the code had been published (publisher’s edition: Code of Ordinances: Supplement 67).
Full Breakdown
Sec. 7-4 of the animal code designates the whole area inside Mobile's corporate limits as a bird sanctuary and bans pursuing, injuring, capturing, killing, or destroying any songbird there. The prohibition is nearly absolute: it can only be set aside by the animal services director, an animal control officer, or a law enforcement officer, and only when a bird is a genuine nuisance or a health or safety hazard that cannot otherwise be remedied. The provision sits in Chapter 7 (Animals and Fowl), enacted by Ord. No. 07-058-2022.
Violations & Fines
Pursuing, injuring, capturing, killing, or destroying a songbird anywhere within Mobile's city limits, outside the narrow nuisance/safety exception, is a municipal offense enforceable by Mobile Animal Services or police.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is all of Mobile a bird sanctuary?
Can the city ever remove a songbird under this rule?
Sources & Official References
Other rules in Mobile
Compare Mobile to another location·View the Alabama animal ordinances overview
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