Upper Darby, PA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 396-3 lists conduct prohibited in every Township park, playground and recreation area, and Subsection L is aimed squarely at wildlife: no one may annoy, injure or kill any animal or bird in a park, disturb waterfowl in the park's streams, pools or ponds, or carry away a bird's nest or eggs. The same section separately bans harming trees, shrubs, turf and park property, so the bird clause sits alongside a broader natural-resource protection scheme for Township parkland rather than standing alone. Enforcement runs through the Upper Darby Police Department, which under § 396-4 exercises general supervision over persons and property in all parks and is the agency that would respond to a reported violation.

Penalties are set out in § 396-7: because a park-conduct violation is not a building, housing, property-maintenance, health, fire or public-safety code violation, it falls under the catch-all civil penalty of not more than $600 per offense, plus costs of prosecution and the Township's attorneys' fees, collected through a civil complaint filed under the Pennsylvania Rules of Civil Procedure. Each day a violation continues, and each separately violated subsection of § 396-3, counts as its own offense, so repeated conduct (for example, disturbing the same nesting waterfowl over several visits) can be charged as multiple violations rather than one.