Florida Senate - 2026                                     SB 264
       
       
        
       By Senator Polsky
       
       
       
       
       
       30-00125-26                                            2026264__
    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  2026 and 2027. 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 with the
   47  information available on the commission’s publicly available
   48  website related to such birds.
   49         (3) No later than December 31, 2027, 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.