The City of Kingston is considering a proposed bylaw which, among other things, will make it an offence to feed wildlife in the city. Wildlife is defined to include birds.
The comment period on the draft bylaw available on the City’s website ends August 18th.
There is an exemption in the bylaw for “songbirds”. That term is narrowly defined. So feeding songbirds would not be an offence, but other common feeder birds, including hummingbirds and woodpeckers, are not exempted.
Many of the comments — and our Conservation Chair Chris Hargreaves has already made these points to city officials — indicate concerns about how “birds” and “songbirds” are defined and treated by the bylaw. Essentially the bylaw could prevent, or at least affect the use of bird feeders.
This issue is likely to be of interest to KFN members. If you feed birds and have time to do so we suggest that you look up and perhaps comment on the draft bylaw. Any resident of Kingston can do so.
The draft bylaw can be viewed and comments added at this site: https://getinvolved.cityofkingston.ca/community-standards-by-law