Not for the birds: Feeding peacocks now a crime in parts of LA County

Residents who feed peacocks in Los Angeles County will find themselves running afoul with authorities.

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The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday voted to make feeding the flamboyantly feathered birds a misdemeanor in unincorporated areas of the county and the 44 cities that contract with the animal control department, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Feeding peafowl could result in a six-month jail term and/or a fine up to $1,000.

The ruling came after complaints from residents, who objected to some of their neighbors leaving seeds and scraps of bread for the peacocks to eat, the newspaper reported.

Peacocks have been a nuisance to people in the San Gabriel Valley and the Palos Verdes Peninsula for decades, the Times reported. They may be beautiful, but the birds are also destructive, wrecking gardens, blocking traffic, screeching and leaving unwelcome droppings on the roofs of residents, the newspaper reported.

“There are people around the corner that feed them,” Altadena resident Nancy Robb told KCBS. “The peacocks are beautiful, but they’re very destructive. They scratch our cars. They poop all over everything.”

Bonnie Simons said she does not mind ruffling her neighbors’ feathers and will continue to feed the birds.

“I just think it’s very outrageous, and I think it’s certainly impeding on my rights to enjoy the wildlife and give them a little food,” Simons told KCBS.

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Contract cities have the option of not enforcing the ordinance, while unincorporated areas must comply, Marcia Mayeda, director of the Los Angeles County Department of Animal Care and Control, told the Times.

“If a city said, ‘We don’t want to adopt this. We have a different way of handling peacocks,’ we would agree to that,” Mayeda told the newspaper.

Mayeda said animal control officers generally leave peacocks alone, because “they’re a difficult bird to capture.”

Wildlife expert Mike Maxcy, who worked at the Los Angeles Zoo for 33 years, told the Times that peafowl are resourceful, “kind of like the raccoons of the bird world,” eating practically anything and everything.

Once the birds attain adulthood, they do not have many predators other than humans, Maxcy said.

Maxcy said the peacock population in the area has risen because they are being fed by humans.

“They’re all in very nice neighborhoods with very nice homes and tall majestic old pine trees (where they roost), and dare I say, animal fanatics that love to feed them,” Maxcy told the Times.

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