Bill > S0264

Introduced Session

An act relating to the official state bird; requiring the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to develop and conduct a certain survey; requiring the commission to provide the survey and certain website information to specified persons during a specified timeframe; requiring that the survey include specified bird species; requiring the commission to submit the results of the survey to the Legislature by a specified date; providing an effective date. WHEREAS, in 1927, the Florida Legislature designated the northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) as the official state bird, and WHEREAS, dating back to the 1998 Regular Session, the Legislature has, on a number of occasions, reviewed and considered legislation to replace the northern mockingbird as the official state bird, and WHEREAS, Florida is one of five states that has designated the northern mockingbird as the official state bird, and WHEREAS, in 2008, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission held a vote among 78,000 Florida schoolchildren which coincided with the general election, and the schoolchildren voted to recommend the American osprey (Pandion haliaetus carolinensis) as Florida’s new official state bird, and WHEREAS, the time has come to allow the next generation of Floridians to make their voices heard and to have the participants in the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network summer camps hold a vote on the official state bird, with the possibility of a new bird species being presented to the Legislature for consideration as the official state bird, NOW, THEREFORE,

AI Summary

Tina Polsky (D)*, 

Introduced (on 01/13/2026)

Official Document