Dearborn Heights, MI Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

City Code Sec. 6-97(c) declares that the roosting and lingering of pigeons, gulls, and doves on public or commercial property poses a health hazard and offends aesthetic senses through bird contamination, and it declares such lingering, roosting, or encouragement of excessive bird congregation on public, private, or commercial property a public nuisance. Building on that finding, the section makes it unlawful to feed pigeons, gulls, or doves in any manner on any public or commercial property in the city, and separately unlawful to feed them on private property if that feeding causes the birds to roost and linger on public or private property.

The ordinance was most recently amended by Ord. No. H-23-02 in May 2023, showing the council revisited bird-feeding nuisances well after the original 1994 ordinance. The rule targets the exact aesthetic and sanitation problems pigeon and gull flocks create around dumpsters, parking lots, and storefronts in the city's commercial corridors along Telegraph and Ford Roads, and it gives code enforcement and police a nuisance basis for citing property owners whose feeding attracts and holds flocks rather than merely passing through.