Bird Owners Flock Together to Oppose Proposed Limits : Camarillo: Some residents are squawking over plans to restrict the number of avians and categorize them by weight.

Camarillo resident Sharon Nesbitt has nurtured her 14 pet birds from the time they hatched as tiny, bald chicks through their growth into brightly colored, feathery fowl.

“I’m their mother,” said Nesbitt, 48.

But under a proposed Camarillo ordinance, Nesbitt could be forced to give up one of her beloved pets, which range from tiny finches to a 1 1/2-pound macaw.

The proposal, expected to come before the Planning Commission in February, would limit residents to no more than 10 small domestic birds for every 1,500 square feet on their house lot and no more than four large birds.

The issue arose when Camarillo officials began recasting their overall pet ordinance in September and decided that an initial plan to limit residents to two large birds was too strict.

But even after planning staff increased the limit to four, some residents squawked about defining birds weighing more than half a pound as large.

Five of Nesbitt’s 14 birds tip the scales at more than half a pound, but she wouldn’t even consider giving up one of her pets.

“I’d ask them (the Planning Commission) if they’d want to give up their children,” she said.

She and a small flock of bird owners contend that the half-pound weight guideline is arbitrary.

Most parrots, for example, weigh between half a pound and 1 1/2 pounds but measure less than 10 inches long, making them significantly smaller than cockatoos or other birds normally considered large.

The group has asked city officials to drop the weight guideline and classify large birds only by their type, such as cockatoos and macaws.

Resident Trish Drum, who helped city planners draft the ordinance allowing up to four birds that weigh more than half a pound, said it should be passed as is.

“It’s realistic, fair, measurable and enforceable,” Drum said.

Not having a weight guideline would make any limitation on large birds difficult to enforce, she said.

Drum argued that half a pound is a good cutoff point and that many large birds are loud, one of the concerns behind the proposed ordinance.

“Have you ever lived next door to an Amazon parrot?” Drum asked.

She pointed out that she’s not a bird-hater and has four birds of her own--a canary, a finch, a white dove and a pocket parrot.

“I’m a bird lover,” she said. “I’m not Darth Vader coming in.”

But she said city dwellers should expect more restrictions than rural residents on the numbers of animals they keep.

“The people that are being dealt with are in spitting distance of their next-door neighbor,” she said.

In addition to noise, the proposed ordinance is intended to address problems with smells and other nuisances that may be posed by large numbers of birds, city officials said.

In response to criticism of the proposed bird ordinance, city planners point out that the law would be more generous than pet laws in other Ventura County cities.

Simi Valley, Thousand Oaks and Ventura permit residents to keep no more than six adult animals, which applies to birds, rabbits and hamsters but not to dogs and cats.

Under the proposed Camarillo ordinance, residents who keep the maximum 14 birds could also have up to two adult dogs and two adult cats.

Moreover, Planning Director Tony Boden said city officials have no intention of enforcing the pet ordinance unless there are complaints.

But Nesbitt and other members of her group say they don’t expect complaints.

Nesbitt says she keeps her noisier, large birds inside.

Her smaller birds, which at one time numbered in the dozens, live in a fenced aviary in the back yard.

One of Nesbitt’s next-door neighbors, Frances Martinez, said she was initially bothered by the bird sounds, but no more.

“We could hear them all the time,” Martinez said. “We’d open the door in the summer and all we’d hear is the birds. We’d have company and they’d say it’s like we’re in the tropical islands.”

But Martinez said she’s gotten used to bird cries, which she mainly hears in the mornings, and she now keeps a couple of small birds in her home.

She said she doesn’t see the need for any bird ordinances.

“I think it’s people’s own business to do what they want as long as it doesn’t bother other people.”