At the Monday, November 9, 2026 City Council meeting, the Miami Springs City Council unanimously passed the first reading of an official ordinance amending Chapter 90 (“Animals and Fowl”) of the City Code. The new ordinance directly addresses growing resident complaints regarding noise, sanitation, and property damage caused by increasing populations of feral chickens, roosters, Muscovy ducks, peafowl, and pigeons across local neighborhoods.
The proposed legislative changes update the City’s longstanding Bird Sanctuary regulations and formally prohibit the public feeding of free-roaming, feral, or abandoned domestic poultry throughout Miami Springs.
📋 What the Ordinance Changes: Key Highlights
1. Exclusion from Bird Sanctuary Protections (§ 90-15)
While all territory within the corporate limits of Miami Springs remains a designated Bird Sanctuary, Section 90-15 has been amended to explicitly remove municipal sanctuary protections for feral, unowned, or domestic poultry and pest species.
- Excluded Species: Pigeons, peafowl, chickens, roosters, Muscovy ducks, and other domestic poultry or fowl are now officially excluded from the shooting, trapping, or destroying prohibitions of the sanctuary ordinance.
- Animal Cruelty & Protected Wildlife Safeguards: The ordinance explicitly clarifies that nothing in this section permits animal cruelty prohibited by law, nor does it allow the taking of native wild birds protected under federal, state, or Miami-Dade County laws (such as migratory songbirds, raptors, and protected wading birds).
2. Strict Prohibition on Feeding Feral & Free-Roaming Fowl (§ 90-16)
To eliminate artificial food sources that attract and expand feral chicken and duck colonies, the ordinance makes it strictly unlawful for any person to knowingly feed, or leave food out for, any free-roaming, feral, abandoned, or unowned chickens, roosters, peafowl, pigeons, or domestic ducks.
- Household Pets Exception: This feeding prohibition does not apply to birds lawfully kept inside homes as household pets, such as parakeets, canaries, or parrots.
- Medical & Official Control Exceptions: Feeding is permitted when performed by licensed veterinarians delivering medical care, or by City animal control officers, Code Enforcement officers, and authorized contractors using food to humanely trap, capture, or relocate fowl.
💡 What This Means for Miami Springs Residents
- 🚫 Do Not Feed Feral Chickens or Ducks: Residents and visitors are strictly prohibited from tossing breadcrumbs, birdseed, scraps, or feed in front yards, driveways, parks, or public right-of-ways for feral chickens, roosters, Muscovy ducks, or wild pigeons. Leaving food outdoors encourages roosting, causes sanitation issues, and now constitutes a Code violation.
- 🐔 Paves the Way for Humane Trapping & Relocation: Excluding feral chickens and domestic fowl from the Bird Sanctuary ordinance clears the legal hurdle for the City, Code Enforcement, and professional contractors to deploy humane trapping, capture, and relocation programs to manage feral populations.
- 🐾 Protects Domestic Pets & Native Birds: Local pet owners with indoor birds (parakeets, parrots, canaries) are unaffected. Furthermore, native birds that call Miami Springs home remain fully protected under federal and state wildlife preservation laws.
📅 Next Steps & Second Reading
Because this ordinance passed on First Reading on November 9, 2026, it will return for a second public hearing and final vote at an upcoming City Council meeting before becoming fully enacted into law.
Official municipal records and full legislative text available courtesy of the City of Miami Springs City Clerk’s Office.
