Florida Senate - 2025 SB 212 By Senator Polsky 30-00154A-25 2025212__ Page 1 of 2 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. A bill to be entitled 1

An act relating to the official state bird; requiring 2 the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission to 3 develop and conduct a certain survey; requiring the 4 commission to provide the survey and certain website 5 information to specified persons during a specified 6 timeframe; requiring that the survey include specified 7 bird species; requiring the commission to submit the 8 results of the survey to the Legislature by a 9 specified date; providing an effective date. 10 11 WHEREAS, in 1927, the Florida Legislature designated the 12 northern mockingbird (Mimus polyglottos) as the official state 13 bird, and 14 WHEREAS, dating back to the 1998 Regular Session, the 15 Legislature has, on a number of occasions, reviewed and 16 considered legislation to replace the northern mockingbird as 17 the official state bird, and 18 WHEREAS, Florida is one of five states that has designated 19 the northern mockingbird as the official state bird, and 20 WHEREAS, in 2008, the Fish and Wildlife Conservation 21 Commission held a vote among 78,000 Florida schoolchildren which 22 coincided with the general election, and the schoolchildren 23 voted to recommend the American osprey (Pandion haliaetus 24 carolinensis) as Florida’s new official state bird, and 25 WHEREAS, the time has come to allow the next generation of 26 Floridians to make their voices heard and to have the 27 participants in the Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission’s 28 Florida Youth Conservation Centers Network summer camps hold a 29 Florida Senate - 2025 SB 212 30-00154A-25 2025212__ Page 2 of 2 CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions. vote on the official state bird, with the possibility of a new 30 bird species being presented to the Legislature for 31 consideration as the official state bird, NOW, THEREFORE, 32 33 Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida: 34 35

Section 1.

(1) The Fish and Wildlife Conservation 36 Commission shall develop and conduct a survey of this state’s 37 youth to determine whether the state should select another bird 38 species as the official state bird. 39

(2) The Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission shall 40 provide the survey to the participants in the Florida Youth 41 Conservation Centers Network summer camps during the summers of 42 2025 and 2026. The survey must include the northern mockingbird, 43 American osprey, Florida scrub jay, American flamingo, and 44 American white ibis as selections. In addition to the survey, 45 the commission shall provide the participants the information 46 available on the commission’s publicly available website related 47 to such birds. 48

(3) No later than December 31, 2026, the commission shall 49 submit the results of the survey to the President of the Senate 50 and the Speaker of the House of Representatives. 51

Section 2. This act shall take effect upon becoming a law. 52