Wildlife licensing

A wildlife licence is required if you want to disturb or remove protected wildlife or damage protected resting places in Northern Ireland.

When do I need a licence?

Licenses to disturb protected animals are issued for a strict list of reasons and available:

to prevent damage to agriculture, livestock, fisheries, property or archaeology
to protect public health and safety (including air safety)
to carry out maintenance and development of land
for science, education and conservation
to prevent disease among species
to keep or release non-native species
to sell, own, exhibit or transport protected species

The activities you can get a licence for vary from species to species

You could be fined up to £5000 per offence and get up to six months in prison if you don't have a licence.

Please also note it is your responsibility to return your licence reports and renew your licence, this doesn't happen automatically.

Wildlife licence application process

Check that your activity is not covered by our General Licences detailed further down this page.

The following licences require a fee to be paid, this will be requested during the online application:

BPL - To hold a captive bred bird of prey £10.00
BPC - To breed birds of prey in captivity £50.00
VRO - To hold wild birds for aviculture £10.00
XYO - To sell dead wild birds and animals (taxidermy) £50.00

If you are applying for a licence involving bats or otters the following information should be submitted with your application:

Bats

Otters

It is necessary for any person wishing to keep Birds of Prey which are ordinarily resident in, or is a visitor to, the European territory of any member state to be in possession of a licence issued under the terms of the Wildlife (Northern Ireland) Order 1985.

Information for those applying to hold bird of prey

Cormorants: For the Purpose of Preventing Serious Damage to Fisheries: a licence to shoot cormorants, information for those owner/operators requiring licences to protect their inland fishing interests.

Information for those applying to shoot cormorants

Photography: Guidance for those wishing to undertake photography of protected birds and animals. The welfare of the subject being photographed must always take precedence over the desire or need to obtain a photograph.

Code for photography

Please have available all supporting information in a digital format.

First time applicants for a commercial ecology licence should upload a short supporting CV detailing their experience in the field.

To apply for a Wildlife Licence please follow the link: Apply for wildlife licence here

To receive an electronic version of our application please email elmswildlife@daera-ni.gov.uk

General licences

DAERA are currently actively considering the Northern Ireland general licences process. A public consultation on this matter was undertaken earlier this year and a summary report of the results is available in the link below:

General Licence Consultation Summary

After consideration of the consultation responses and available bird population data, DAERA have now issued interim amended licences for January and February 2023 while stakeholder engagement concludes. The main changes are as follows:

Herring Gull, Lesser Black Backed Gull, Great Black Backed Gull, Starling and House Sparrow have been removed from the general licences
Licence TPG1 for the purpose of preserving public health or public safety applies to Feral Pigeon and Jackdaw.
Licence TPG2 for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease and preventing serious damage to livestock, crops, etc, now applies to Hooded Crow, Jackdaw, Magpie, Rook, Feral Pigeon and Woodpigeon.
Licence TPG3 for the conservation of wild birds applies to Hooded Crow and Magpie and is restricted to use in the breeding season between 1 March and 31 August.
There are additional conditions to be observed for intended use of general licences on protected sites.
The licence format has been expanded for clarity, and additional advisory material has been added’

General licences permit authorised persons to carry out actions that would otherwise be illegal. They cover certain types of activity relating to birds, such as preserving public health or air safety, and preventing the spread of disease. General licences cover situations that are regarded as relatively commonplace and where there is unlikely to be any great conservation impact.

General licences avoid the need for people to apply for individual licences for these specific circumstances. General licences are still subject to strict conditions, and abuse of them or failure to comply with the conditions could constitute an offence.

General licence are issued annually. You can download the licences below or obtain a hard copy from the NIEA wildlife team.

All general licences are subject to certain conditions of use. If you plan to act under the authority of a general licence, you must:

be eligible to do so (see conditions of each licence)
comply with the terms of the relevant licence and therefore the law

These licences do not give any right of access or right to take action to otherwise unauthorised persons. You should read a copy of the relevant licence in addition to the information below before undertaking any action

General licences downloads

While this consultation is being finalised, DAERA have issued amended, interim licences. Several bird species have been removed from either all or some of the three general licences. These interim licences are issued without prejudice to what licences may be issued thereafter, following consultation and consideration of all relevant issues by the Department. It is intended that the interim licences will provide a degree of certainty for users and other stakeholders while active consideration is on-going.

Kill or take certain birds, including the taking, damaging or destruction of their eggs, or the disturbance of such a bird or the young of such a bird for the purpose of preserving public health or public safety

to kill or take certain birds TPG1

Kill or take certain birds, including the taking, damaging or destruction of their eggs, or the disturbance of such a bird or the young of such a bird for the purpose of preventing the spread of disease and preventing serious damage to livestock, foodstuffs for livestock, crops, vegetables, fruit, growing timber and fisheries

to kill or take certain birds TPG2

Kill or take certain birds, including the taking, damaging or destruction of their eggs, or the disturbance of such a bird or the young of such a bird for the purpose of conserving wild birds

to kill or take certain birds TPG3

Mallard eggs licences

This licence, granted under Article (18)(2)(b) permits an authorised person to take first clutch mallard eggs and to have, in their possession, such eggs and any birds hatched from such eggs.

to take mallard eggs for the purposes of incubation and subsequent release of the birds

This licence, granted under Article (18)(2)(b) permits any person to have in their possession mallard eggs for incubation or live mallard ducks for release in the wild.

to possess mallard eggs for incubation and to possess mallard for release

General licenses are issued annually and permit 'authorised persons' to carry out actions that would otherwise be illegal. They cover certain types of activity relating to birds such as preserving public health or air safety and preventing the spread of disease.

General licenses cover situations where there is unlikely to be any great conservation impact. However, these are still subject to strict conditions and abuse of them or failure to comply with the conditions could constitute an offence.