Problem Solving
Is It Illegal to Feed Pigeons in Your Yard?
Not under any US federal or state law we found. It is illegal in cities that have their own pigeon ordinance, and those ordinances split on the two questions that decide whether your bird feeder counts: which birds "pigeon" means, and whether you have to mean it.
The short answer
- No federal law and no state statute we read bans feeding pigeons in your own yard. The bans are city ordinances, and Phoenix, San Carlos, Montebello and York, Pennsylvania all have one.
- The Arizona statewide ban you may see quoted was SB 1420, a 2026 bill that was held in committee. Arizona's actual wildlife feeding statute exempts birds.
- In San Carlos and Montebello, California, "pigeon" means any bird of the dove family, so scattering millet for mourning doves is covered too. Phoenix means the rock pigeon only.
- Phoenix fines start at $150 and run to $2,500, but a case on private property needs a written complaint signed by witnesses in three separate households. Feeding other birds with devices designed to keep pigeons out is allowed.
- Chandler, Arizona took the other route on July 11, 2026: no pigeon ban, but a nuisance test for droppings and rodents, and every feeder at least 5 feet off the ground.
No, not in most of the United States: no federal law or state statute we found makes it illegal to feed pigeons on your own property. Where it is illegal, the rule is a city ordinance.
We read seven rules in their primary text: five city codes, one state statute with the bill that tried to change it, and England's notice power. How to look up your own rules is in neighbors and ordinances, and the turkey version of the same question is in is it illegal to feed wild turkeys.
The rules we read#
Read the "Which birds" column first. It decides whether the rule touches a dove feeder at all.
| Place | Rule | Which birds | Your bird feeder | Penalty |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phoenix, Arizona | City Code 8-7.02 (Ord. G-6598, 2019) | Rock pigeon only (Columba livia) | Allowed if you use "practices or devices designed to prevent pigeons from obtaining food" | Class 1 misdemeanor, or civil: $150 to $2,500 |
| Chandler, Arizona | City Code 30-20, new subsection, effective July 11, 2026 | All non-domesticated birds; feral pigeons given as the example | Allowed if droppings are not noticeable from next door, nothing draws rodents, and feeders are at least 5 ft up | Not in the text we read |
| San Carlos, California | Municipal Code ch. 8.26 (Ord. 1166, 1994) | Any bird of the family Columbidae not under someone's care | No exception, and no intent wording | Infraction: up to $50, then $100, then $250 within a year |
| Montebello, California | Municipal Code ch. 17.90 (Ord. 2408, 2018) | Pigeons (any Columbidae), plus wildfowl, ducks, squirrels, feral cats | No exception, but "feed" requires the intention of feeding or attracting wildlife | Infraction: up to $50, then $100, then $250 within a year |
| York, Pennsylvania | Codified Ordinances art. 745 | "Pigeons at large" | Not addressed; the ban is on feeding them "intentionally" | $25, then $100, then up to $1,000, plus costs |
| Arizona (state) | ARS 13-2927, and SB 1420 (2026) | The statute exempts "tree squirrels or birds"; the bill would have made pigeons the exception | Not covered by the statute | Bill held in committee, never law |
| England and Wales | Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014, s. 43 | No species named: it targets conduct | Can be restricted by a community protection notice after a written warning | Fixed penalty up to £100; on conviction, a level 4 fine |
Four of the five city codes ban feeding pigeons. Chandler regulates the result instead of the act, which is the approach a bird feeder owner can most easily live with.
Why the answers online disagree#
Search the question and you will read that feeding pigeons is illegal across Arizona, or that feeding birds in your own yard is always legal. Both are wrong.
A bill read as a law. Arizona SB 1420, "public nuisance; pigeons," was introduced on January 26, 2026. It would have added a new section, 13-2927.01, saying "It is unlawful for a person to feed pigeons," with a warning for a first violation, a $100 civil penalty for a second and a petty offense after that. The Legislature's own record lists its final disposition as "Held in Committees." It never passed.
What Arizona law does say is in ARS 13-2927. It makes "intentionally, knowingly or recklessly feeding, attracting or otherwise enticing wildlife" a petty offense in counties of more than 280,000 people, then exempts "tree squirrels or birds." Pigeons are birds. SB 1420 would have rewritten that exemption as "birds except pigeons," which is the clearest sign that the current statute does not reach them.
The bill's definitions and its exception for pigeon-proof feeders are copied almost word for word from Phoenix's 2019 ordinance. The text circulating as "Arizona law" is Phoenix law, and applies inside Phoenix only.
"Pigeons are not protected, so anything goes." The rock pigeon is not on the federal list of protected birds, which is why you may keep a pigeon feather but not a mourning dove's (see keeping bird feathers). That list governs killing and possessing birds, not whether your city may ban feeding them.
When "pigeon" means your mourning doves#
The ordinances do not agree on what a pigeon is.
- Phoenix defines a pigeon as "any bird of the family columbidae and species columba livia, commonly known as the rock dove, homing pigeon or carrier pigeon." That is one species. Mourning doves, white-winged doves and Eurasian collared-doves are different species and fall outside the ban.
- San Carlos defines a "wild pigeon" as "any bird of the family Columbidae," excluding only pigeons "under the care and control of any person." Montebello uses the same definition. The family Columbidae is every pigeon and dove, so in both cities a tray of millet put out for mourning doves is feeding wild pigeons.
So "I only feed the doves" is a defense in Phoenix and no defense in San Carlos.
Check the definition, not the heading
San Carlos's chapter and Phoenix's section are both headed "Feeding pigeons." One reaches the whole dove family, the other one species.
Does a bird feeder count as feeding pigeons?#
Most of these rules separate a feeder that pigeons raid from bread thrown on the patio, in one of three ways.
An intent word. Phoenix defines feed as "to knowingly provide food." York bans feeding pigeons "intentionally." Montebello defines feed as placing or scattering food "with the intention of feeding, attracting or enticing wildlife." Under those words, a pigeon cleaning up under your sunflower feeder is not, on its own, a violation, though once you know they eat there daily and change nothing, "knowingly" gets harder to argue.
A device exception. Phoenix's ban does not "prohibit the feeding of other birds using practices or devices designed to prevent pigeons from obtaining food." A setup that is pigeon-proof by design, described below, is the safest position in any city.
An outcome test. Chandler does not ask who you meant to feed. Bird feeding is allowed only while it "does not create an accumulation of droppings on the feeder's property or neighboring properties that is discernible by sight or smell" from next door, while the property is not "an attractant for rodents or other wild animals," and while all feeders are "at least five feet above the ground." Fail any one and it is a nuisance.
San Carlos has none of the three. Its rule says only that "it is a nuisance for any person to feed any wild pigeon" on public or private property, with no intent word and no feeder exception.
Who can start a case#
- Phoenix will not act on private property "except upon receipt of a written complaint, signed by at least three witnesses in separate households with independent knowledge of the violation." One annoyed neighbor is not enough. The council approved the ordinance in June 2019, after a resident told it about a neighbor who fed pigeons every day, and it took effect the next month.
- Chandler says its enforcement will be "education first."
- San Carlos and Montebello treat it as an infraction, capped at $50 for a first violation.
The failed Arizona bill would have changed this most: a warning first, but a private right of action that let any neighbor sue.
England and Wales: no ban, but a notice#
Councils in England and Wales use the community protection notice in section 43 of the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. It can be served when conduct is "having a detrimental effect, of a persistent or continuing nature, on the quality of life of those in the locality" and "the conduct is unreasonable." It can order you to stop specified things, which for a bird feeder could mean putting food out on the ground.
The notice can only follow a written warning, and only once you have had "enough time to deal with the matter." Breaking it is an offense under section 48 (a fine up to level 4 on the standard scale), or a fixed penalty that section 52 caps at £100. No pigeon is named: like Chandler's, the test is the effect on the neighbors.
A feeder pigeons cannot use#
The aim is a setup that meets Phoenix's exception on its face: a heavy, broad-bodied bird gets nothing to stand on and nothing to pick up.
- Cage the feeder. A caged feeder with a grid of about 1.5 inches (4 cm), standing 2 to 3 inches off the ports, already excludes mourning doves. A rock pigeon is much bulkier than a mourning dove.
- Or use a weight-activated feeder. A weight-activated feeder with the trigger set below grackle weight, about 4 oz (115 g), shuts its ports under anything heavier. A Eurasian collared-dove already weighs 4.9 to 6.3 oz (140 to 180 g), and a rock pigeon is much bigger than that.
- Drop the open surfaces. No platform feeder, no ground feeder, no seed scattered on a deck or balcony floor.
- Change the seed. White millet is a pigeon and house sparrow seed, and cracked corn is eaten mainly by doves and other ground feeders. Sunflower hearts in a tube leave nothing on the ground worth landing for.
- Catch the spill with a tray and the methods in seed mess, hulls and dead grass. Spill under a feeder is also what draws mice and rats, Chandler's other test.
- Hang it at least 5 feet up. That is Chandler's minimum, and close to where most feeders already belong (see how high to hang a bird feeder).
In a dove-family city like San Carlos, this list is the only safe ground.
Where this page stops applying#
- Other cities. We read five city codes. Yours may have a pigeon rule inside a general nuisance, sanitation or animal chapter. Search your municipal code for "pigeon," "Columbidae" and "feeding," and read the definitions section.
- Public property. This page is about your own yard. Parks and plazas often have their own feeding bans, and San Carlos and Montebello cover streets and public land as well as yards.
- Leases and HOAs. A lease or covenant can ban a feeder that no city code touches. That is covered in neighbors and ordinances.
- Racing and homing pigeons. Phoenix allows kept pigeons in a backyard enclosure with at least one square foot per mature bird, fed only inside it.
- Penalties we did not read. Chandler's subsection does not state its own fine, and we did not read the city's general penalty provision.
This is a reading of statutes and ordinances, not legal advice.
Frequently asked questions#
Is it illegal to feed pigeons in Arizona?
Not under state law. ARS 13-2927 exempts birds from Arizona's wildlife feeding offense, and SB 1420, the 2026 bill that would have banned feeding pigeons statewide, was held in committee. Phoenix bans it by city ordinance (Code 8-7.02), and Chandler sets nuisance conditions for any bird feeding from July 11, 2026.
Can I be fined if pigeons eat from my bird feeder?
Only where a city ordinance covers it. Phoenix bans knowingly feeding pigeons but allows feeding other birds with devices designed to keep pigeons out, and needs signed complaints from three households before acting on private property. San Carlos, California has no such exception and treats any feeding of a pigeon or dove as a nuisance.
Does a pigeon feeding ban cover mourning doves?
It depends on the definition. Phoenix defines a pigeon as the rock pigeon only, so mourning doves are outside it. San Carlos and Montebello define a wild pigeon as any bird of the family Columbidae, which includes every dove.