JAUNTS : One for the Birds : Many of them will be on sale, ranging from finches for $10 to exotic parrots costing thousands of dollars.

So you’ve never heard a parrot croon “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”? Or seen one roll over and play dead? Or even dance?

Jan Davis has seen it all. She organizes exotic bird shows--giant emporiums for bird breeders and fanciers--and she’s putting one on at the Ventura County Fairgrounds on Sunday.

If you’re in the market for a bird, you’ll see thousands--from finches for under $10 to big macaws and cockatoos for $2,000. Maybe you’ll even find the royal-blue hyacinth macaw, the world’s largest parrot, which costs as much as $8,000.

But you don’t have to be a bird nut to join this flock. All you need is a tolerance for screeching and a taste for the rain forest.

“It’s colorful and noisy--the birds get to hollering at each other,” said Davis, a Hollister breeder-turned-bird-show impresario. For two years, she’s put on three shows a year in Ventura, drawing 1,500 to 2,000 people each time.

Audiences gape not only at the variety of birds but at the bird owners strutting their stuff. Davis schedules a noontime talent contest that draws bizarre entries. In the talking and tricks category, she gets the usual “hello-I-love-you” kind of chatter, but once she had a feathered contestant that could poop on command.

Another bird was released in the arena and was able to zero in on its owner in the audience.

“That’s not something I recommend,” Davis said.

You can also watch owners crow over their pets’ performance on the “birdie obstacle course,” an eight-foot stretch with bridges, balls and tunnels. In the “birdie derby,” contestants race down a 10-foot track.

“You can teach birds to do a lot of things,” Davis said.

She should know. She also makes and sells props for bird tricks. For $35, you can get a two-inch-wide basketball hoop on a pole and a tiny plastic basketball. Her macaw, Willie, will shoot hoops at the Ventura show.

“As long as you keep throwing out sunflower seeds, he runs after the ball,” said Davis, who will be coming out with bird roller-skates this fall.

The birds may be exotic, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that you have to keep your hands off them. “You can play with them--they’ll be on perches,” Davis said, adding that breeders will have disinfectant for you to spray on your hands after you touch the birds.

Three birds will be given away Sunday as raffle and door prizes. But Davis has some advice if you’re tempted to take home a feathered friend.

“They have a lot to offer--they’re not something you just put in a cage,” she said. “They’re very outgoing, social animals,” but some are high maintenance because they demand a lot of attention.

If it’s a talker you want, consider the Amazon or African grey. The birds can mimic sounds and voices so well that they’ve been known to drive owners crazy by imitating a ringing telephone.

Be aware that all birds make noise, but one of the noisiest is the nanday conure, a bird Davis says is quite charming nonetheless. One of the friendliest is the cockatoo--a hand-fed baby runs $800 and up, she said.

Exotic birds don’t require much grooming, just periodic wing and toenail clipping, along with baths from a spray bottle of warm water.

Birds eat pasta, beans, peas, vegetables and even table scraps. “If you’re having cheese and crackers,” Davis said, “the bird would love to have cheese and crackers, too.”

Details

* WHAT: Exotic bird show.

* WHEN: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday.

* WHERE: Ventura County Fairgrounds, 10 W. Harbor Blvd., Ventura.

* HOW MUCH: $5, adults; $2, children 4 to 12; free, 3 and under.

* CALL: 648-3376.