NEWPORT BEACH : Bird Family Chooses Choice Address

A family of birds is the first to enjoy an $800,000 home under construction at a Newport Coast Drive development.

A plastering crew found the birds nesting this week under the eaves of the house in the Santa Lucia development. The job could not be finished without removing the nest.

The crew elected to leave a hole for the young birds to use while they grow up, said Gary Simpson of Laguna Plastering.

“They’re chirping in there, and they’re probably getting close to getting out of there,” he said. “All the guys got together and decided not to kill the birds and let them live.”

Simpson said his crew will come back and finish the job this summer.

“That’s really wonderful,” said Susan Shook, a vice president at RGC, the Newport Beach developer of the project.

She said RGC had not been told of the plastering crew’s decision but is happy to let the birds stay at the house for a couple months. No one plans to move into the four-bedroom home until August, she said.

Simpson said the eaves of the house were plastered to help keep the building from catching fire in a wildfire.