Pair of Rare Birds Stolen From House in Oxnard : Crime: The golden conures are members of a species expected to become extinct in its natural habitat within seven years.

Thieves who broke into Charles Martinez’s Oxnard home last week may have thought the prize loot was the two televisions, two video recorders, home computer and jewelry they carried off.

But the two, 10-inch-long mustard-colored birds the burglars snatched are far more valuable and rare, Martinez says.

Called golden conures, the fowl are an internationally protected species expected to become extinct in its natural habitat of the Brazilian rain forest within the next seven years, experts say.

Only 483 of the yellow birds with green-tipped wings are known to exist outside the rain forest. They are kept and bred in zoos and private aviaries, according to the San Diego Zoo, which tracks golden conures internationally.

The birds are expensive as well as rare.

Martinez’s birds cost $2,500 each when he and a friend pooled their money to buy them six months ago.

Although he intended to breed the pair, the birds were more than a business proposition for Martinez, a truck driver for the Oxnard post office.

He kept them in a converted garage attached to his gray stucco home and fed them by hand specially prepared bean soups, high-vitamin cereal and mixed vegetables three times a day.

“The TVs and VCRs, I could care less about them,” Martinez said. “The insurance will probably take care of them. But the birds I can’t replace.”

Martinez’s three parakeets were also lost in the burglary, leaving only four cockatiels in his bird collection.

In the short time he had the conures, Martinez had grown close to the downy-soft, friendly creatures, he said.

“You get attached,” he said. “I’d take them in the shower with me. They’d come into bed with me. They’d crawl under the covers and fall asleep by my feet. They’d kiss you.”

Martinez said he has called every pet shop in Ventura County, asking them to keep an eye open for people trying to unload conures.

He has also run large newspaper ads, combed the weekend swap meets and passed out flyers offering a reward and “no questions asked” in return for the birds.

But no one has come forward.

Martinez said he doubts the thieves were after the conures when they smashed a back bedroom window to enter the house while he and his wife were at work and the children were at school.

“I hadn’t told anybody I had them,” he said. “I’ve been kind of keeping it under wraps.”

Jackie Thetford, who runs a business delivering birdseed to homes around the county, said she once owned two conures that she kept locked in her bedroom because she was so afraid that they would be stolen.

“When you have something like that, you just don’t tell anyone,” she said. “You have to be real careful.”

Ventura County sheriff’s deputies said bird thefts are rarely reported in the county.

But an agent for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which regulates the trade of endangered species, said thefts of exotic birds, most of which are not endangered, occur at least once a week in Southern California.

“They’re worth money, and any time you have anything that’s worth money, people are going to steal it,” said Herb Curry, a special agent for the Fish and Wildlife Service’s regional office in Torrance.

Because the U. S. Endangered Species Act regulates trading of the animals across state and national lines, the thieves who took Martinez’s conures could face federal charges if they are caught trying to sell the birds outside California for more than $350, Curry said.

But even if suspects are identified, authorities would have a difficult time proving the conures had been stolen.

Although each of the birds had a silver ring around its claw that showed the bird’s federal registration number, the markers could easily be removed.

“They’re not like a car that’s got a serial number on them,” Curry said. “How do you prove that those are your conures?”