Peacocks Cause A Fuss In Miami's Coconut Grove

The proud peacocks of Micanopy Avenue know nothing of the trouble they are in.

Roaming freely in packs of nearly a dozen, they shake their rumps like teenagers, dropping guano on $60,000 sedans and squawking with a sound akin to the screams of someone being attacked.

It has driven many otherwise mellow residents mad. A growing number have recently demanded that Miami officials take action, only to discover that their guests cannot be so easily removed. Because this city has designated itself a bird sanctuary, peacocks and peahens cannot be legally trapped or killed. And so far, officials are siding with the animals.

"My primary concern is the peacocks," said Marc Sarnoff, the city commissioner from Coconut Grove. "I want to make that very clear."

Sarnoff defended the birds as a living embodiment of Coconut Grove's identity as a bohemian, anything-goes neighborhood. Million-dollar homes and Mercedes-Benzes notwithstanding, he said, "It's what the Grove is all about."

His constituents are not so sure. Six or seven years ago, when only a handful of peafowl could be found on Micanopy Avenue, they enjoyed more support. Now, with as many as 35 settling in about a three-block radius at any given time, opinions are mixed.

The birds have set neighbor against neighbor and husband against wife.

To some, fault lies with Patricia Ensign, a retired school secretary whose yard this week included five peafowl pecking at bowls of seed. Ensign said that she fed them mainly "in self defense," so they would not steal food from her cats.

"They're good for traffic calming," she said in an interview through her screen door. "They don't move out of the way."

Meanwhile, next door, Patrick and Laura Goggins are a family divided. Just minutes after a handful of peacocks thudded onto the roof of their bungalow, Patrick Goggins said he considered them "neat," "primitive" and "groovy." Laura Goggins held a different view. "I hate the peacocks," she said.

And like many of her neighbors, she offered several reasons. First, she cited the guano, a sticky pile of goo that stains cars if it is not washed off in 24 hours. She said that it frequently ended up on the shoes of their two children, ages 6 and 8. The children like the birds, she added, but they wonder, during mating season, what they are doing.

City Attorney Julie O. Bru said in an e-mail that trapping of any sort was not allowed.