Florida Senate - 2025 SB 212 By Senator Polsky 30-00154A-25 2025212__ 1 A bill to be entitled 2 An act relating to the official state bird; requiring 3 the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to 4 develop and conduct a certain survey; requiring the 5 commission to provide the survey and certain website 6 information to specified persons during a specified 7 timeframe; requiring that the survey include specified 8 bird species; requiring the commission to submit the 9 results of the survey to the Legislature by a 10 specified date; providing an effective date. 11 12 WHEREAS, in 1927, the Florida Legislature designated the 13 northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) as the official state 14 bird, and 15 WHEREAS, dating back to the 1998 Regular Session, the 16 Legislature has, on a number of occasions, reviewed and 17 considered legislation to replace the northern mockingbird as 18 the official state bird, and 19 WHEREAS, Florida is one of five states that has designated 20 the northern mockingbird as the official state bird, and 21 WHEREAS, in 2008, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation 22 Commission held a vote among 78,000 Florida schoolchildren which 23 coincided with the general election, and the schoolchildren 24 voted to recommend the American osprey (Pandion haliaetus 25 carolinensis) as Florida’s new official state bird, and 26 WHEREAS, the time has come to allow the next generation of 27 Floridians to make their voices heard and to have the 28 participants in the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s 29 Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network summer camps hold a 30 vote on the official state bird, with the possibility of a new 31 bird species being presented to the Legislature for 32 consideration as the official state bird, NOW, THEREFORE, 33 34 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 35 36 Section 1. (1) The Fish and Wildlife Conservation 37 Commission shall develop and conduct a survey of this state’s 38 youth to determine whether the state should select another bird 39 species as the official state bird. 40 (2) The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shall 41 provide the survey to the participants in the Florida Youth 42 Conservation Centers Network summer camps during the summers of 43 2025 and 2026. The survey must include the northern mockingbird, 44 American osprey, Florida scrub jay, American flamingo, and 45 American white ibis as selections. In addition to the survey, 46 the commission shall provide the participants the information 47 available on the commission’s publicly available website related 48 to such birds. 49 (3) No later than December 31, 2026, the commission shall 50 submit the results of the survey to the President of the Senate 51 and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 52 Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law.