State to Discontinue Chickadee Design License Plates
Beginning May 1, 2025, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles (BMV) and Agents will no longer issue license plates with the chickadee design. Anyone who currently has plates with the chickadee design will be required to obtain new plates when they renew their registration or obtain a new registration on or after May 1, 2025.
This means municipalities, including South Portland, will be issuing a new plate when registrants with a chickadee plate renew their registrations. For new registrations and renewals in the Passenger Class (PC) class code, registrants can choose:
- a Pine Tree Plate (existing PC class code) for no additional costs or;
- a “no tree plate” (new NT class code) for no additional costs or;
- one of the current specialty plates (normal fees apply).
Plate Reservations
Registrants who would like to keep their current chickadee plate numbers may reserve their plate number for a $25 one-time fee. This includes people with vanity, low digit, and National Guard (PC class code) plates.
There are four ways registrants may reserve their plate(s):
- Online through the state's stand-alone reservation portal
- Through a reservation process as part of the state's Rapid Renewal website
- At a BMV branch location
- By completing and mailing the Application to Reserve a Plate Number (MV-62) to the BMV Administrative Office. Mail to: 29 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333 with "Attention Registrations"
More Information
For additional information, please visit the Maine BMV’s FAQ about Plate Reservations by clicking here. Registrants with questions about reserving plates may contact: platereserve.bmv@maine.gov.
Page content credit: Town of Kittery, ME