The council's vote changes a city ordinance that allowed only police to discharge firearms at the airport.
Since 2009, there have been 180 reported bird strikes at San Jose International.
Birds can cause serious damage when they collide with jets, particularly if they get sucked into the engine.
Of course, the most dramatic example of this happened in January of 2009, when pilot Sully Sullenberger of Danville landed a bird-stricken U.S. Airways jet in the Hudson River.
