Problem Solving

Is It Legal to Trap House Sparrows?

In the United States, yes: federal law does not protect them, and all six state rules we read allow it. The conditions are what differ: Utah bans bait, California exempts only landowners, Ontario wants a licence, and England does not allow it.

Yes in the United States, under federal law and in every state rule we read. House sparrows are not native, so the Migratory Bird Treaty Act does not cover them, Texas, Indiana, Maine, California and New York leave them out of their own bird protection, and Utah lets them be killed without a permit when they cause damage. What changes from place to place is the conditions: who may trap, when, and with what.

Below are those rules side by side, plus Canada and England. How to tell a house sparrow from the native sparrows a trap will also catch is in sparrow identification, and the non-lethal side of the problem is in house sparrows at the feeder.

The rules we read#

Each row comes from the text of the rule, except Indiana's, which is the state wildlife agency's guidance page.

Maine's section is the plainest: a person "may not hunt or trap a wild bird, other than the English or European house sparrow," the rock pigeon and the European starling. Trapping any other wild bird is a Class E crime.

Texas goes furthest. Section 64.002(a) protects every bird that is not a game bird, including its eggs, nest and young. Subsection (b) takes three species out: "European starlings, English sparrows, and feral rock doves (Columba livia) may be killed at any time in any manner and their nests or eggs may be destroyed." Chapter 42 of the Penal Code is where Texas puts its animal cruelty offenses.

Why the answers online disagree#

One answer says house sparrows have no protection, so trap away. The other says to check for a state permit, and stops there.

"They are not protected." That is federal law, and it is correct as far as it goes: section 703(b) limits the Act to native species. But a state can protect a bird Congress left out.

"You may need a permit." None of the six state rules we read makes a homeowner get a permit, though Utah's exemption applies only when the birds damage property or are a nuisance. The caution is right in Ontario, where trapping needs a licence unless the birds are damaging your property, and in England, where the house sparrow is a protected wild bird. In the US the catch is not a permit but a condition: Utah's ban on bait, or California's line between the landowner and everyone else.

Utah: legal, with four conditions#

Utah's rule, effective August 10, 2023, needs no permit to kill a house sparrow, starling or rock pigeon "when found damaging personal or real property," or when massed as "a health hazard or other nuisance." It holds only when:

• Non-lethal control comes first. "An attempt to control the birds using non-lethal methods occurs before using lethal methods." For a feeder, that means cutting the white millet and cracked corn house sparrows favor, and fixing the nest boxes they take over, as set out in nest boxes.
• No bait. Subsection (4): "A person may not take nuisance birds with bait, explosives, or poisons." Bait is undefined, but a ground trap loaded with seed is hard to call anything else; a nest box trap uses the box, not food.
• An annual report. Anyone who takes a nuisance bird under the rule "must provide to the appropriate U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Regional Migratory Bird Permit Office an annual report for each species taken." Utah asks for it even though federal law does not cover the house sparrow.
• No sale, and proper disposal. None of the birds or their plumage may be sold, and carcasses go to a landfill that accepts wildlife or are burned or incinerated.

It also requires that "applicable local, state, and federal laws are strictly complied with," which brings in city rules; see neighbors and ordinances.

California: the landowner line#

Fish and Game Code section 3801 says the English sparrow and the starling "may be taken or possessed at any time." Without a license, only "a landowner or lessee, or an agent of either in immediate possession of written authority," may do it, on their own land. "All other persons" need a hunting license.

So you can trap house sparrows in your own yard, and so can a tenant. A neighbor or bluebird volunteer running traps for you needs your written authority on hand, or a license.

Ontario and England: where you need a licence#

Canada, federally. The house sparrow is not on Environment and Climate Change Canada's list of birds protected under the Migratory Birds Convention Act (page modified April 16, 2026), and neither are the European starling and the rock pigeon. Species it leaves out "might be protected under other laws," including provincial ones.

Ontario. Section 5(2) of the provincial Act exempts the house sparrow, starling, crow, cowbird, grackle and red-winged blackbird from its ban on hunting non-game birds. But section 6(1)(g) says that "except under the authority of a licence," a person shall not hunt or trap "a bird referred to in subsection 5 (2)." The way around the licence is section 31: if you believe on reasonable grounds that wildlife "is damaging or is about to damage" your property, you may harass, capture or kill it on your land, and sections 5 and 6 do not apply. You may take no more than "is necessary to protect the property," and cause no "unnecessary suffering." Sparrows taking a nest box fit that wording; sparrows eating at your feeder are harder to call damage.

England. Section 1(1)(a) of the Wildlife and Countryside Act makes it an offense if a person "intentionally kills, injures or takes any wild bird." Natural England's three general licences for 2026, GL40 (conservation), GL41 (public health and safety) and GL42 (serious damage), list crows, pigeons, Canada geese and parakeets among others, but not the house sparrow or the starling. Anything they do not cover needs an individual licence.

One class licence names the house sparrow: CL03, which lets food premises take house sparrows, starlings and ten other species trapped inside "and then release alive and unharmed." It is for a bird loose in a food business, not a garden feeder.

The trap does not check the species#

Every exemption above names particular species; a trap catches whatever walks in. Section 703(a) makes it unlawful to "pursue, hunt, take, capture, kill" any migratory bird, and capture is on that list in its own right. Under 707(a) a violation is a misdemeanor, with a fine of "not more than $15,000" or up to six months in prison, or both. A Utah or Texas exemption does not reach a song sparrow.

The birds most often mistaken for a house sparrow at a feeder are the song sparrow, the chipping sparrow and the female house finch. All three are protected. And a trap set in a box meant for bluebirds can hold a bluebird instead. Learn the male and female house sparrow before setting anything, and check traps often enough that a native bird is let go quickly and unharmed.

Maine and California also allow possessing a house sparrow; a feather from a native bird is another matter, covered in is it illegal to keep bird feathers. Texas lets you destroy house sparrow nests and eggs, and Ontario's nest protection in section 7 exempts house sparrow nests; the rules for native nests are in is it illegal to remove a bird nest.

Starlings and pigeons on the same lists#

Most of these rules name the starling and the rock pigeon too, but not every time.

"Yes" does not lift the conditions above. For the other two birds, see starlings at the feeder and, for the separate question of feeding them, is it illegal to feed pigeons.

Where this page stops applying#

• Other states and cities. We read six state rules and no local codes. Read yours before setting a trap.
• Indiana is from the DNR's guidance page, not the administrative code.
• Ontario. Section 6(4) lets regulations add circumstances where no licence is needed. We did not read the regulations, and we did not read any other province.
• Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland issue their own licences, and we read England's only.
• Methods. This page is about whether trapping is legal, not how to do it or what to do with the bird afterwards; that is a decision we leave to you, as house sparrows at the feeder explains.

This is a reading of statutes, regulations and agency guidance, not legal advice.