Oak Park, IL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Oak Park Village Code § 5-5-9, adopted by Ordinance 15-138 on August 3, 2015, closes out Article 5 of the Animals chapter with a blanket protection for birds and squirrels found anywhere in the Village of Oak Park, Cook County, Illinois. The text is short and absolute: it is unlawful for any person to kill or wound, or attempt to kill or wound, any squirrel or bird, and equally unlawful to take the eggs or young of any bird within village limits. The section follows immediately after § 5-5-8, which bars diseased animals from running at large, and § 5-5-7, which covers dangerous-animal hearings and inspections, placing the wildlife protection at the close of the article rather than tucked into a definitions section.

Because the ordinance names no exemption for pest control, trapping, or hunting, and no separate carve-out appears anywhere else in Article 5, the prohibition reads as village-wide and unconditional on its face. Enforcement runs through the Village's general penalty provision, § 1-1-5, since Article 5 sets out no dedicated fine for this section. That general clause makes every day a violation continues a separate offense, so repeated disturbance of a nest or work that destroys eggs over several days multiplies exposure rather than triggering a single flat fine.

The rule is Oak Park's own, distinct from any Illinois Department of Natural Resources wildlife statute and separate from Cook County's animal control code, which does not reach into the Village.