Roaming Peafowl in Arcadia Have Some Residents Ruffled

The Sitabkhan family of Arcadia enjoyed the wooden gazebo in their backyard, especially the occasional glimpse of a regal blue neck peacock that it provided. Then, the birds started roosting on the gazebo.

“Before, it was really nice. We were really fascinated,” Farida Sitabkhan said recently. Now, “they’re pests. They are very destructive.”

The peafowl population grew around their Harvard Drive house until at least half a dozen birds, which can weigh up to 20 pounds apiece, were climbing on the structure’s roof, squawking and breaking off chunks of wood.

“It was over a period of time,” said Sitabkhan, whose family has lived in Arcadia for 24 years. The gazebo “was breaking constantly. We would fix one area. More pieces would fall off somewhere else.”

Finally, the family tore the structure down about a year ago. “We didn’t want somebody to get hurt,” she said.

Such is the paradox of the peacock--graceful and delicate in appearance; loud, clumsy, even destructive by nature.

On any given day in Arcadia, dozens of the turkey-size birds can be seen relaxing near a homeowner’s pool or sitting in the middle of the street staring at motorists. They can be found munching on freshly planted pansies or sleeping in the trees at night.

Their calls can awaken entire neighborhoods or even disrupt a performance by the California Philharmonic Orchestra, as they did during the July 4 show at the Arboretum of Los Angeles County.

There are as many as 1,200 Indian blue neck peafowl inhabiting this small San Gabriel Valley city, according to Nelson Holmes, a bird specialist and senior tour guide at the arboretum. There are smaller populations in La Canada Flintridge and Palos Verdes, making Southern California the only part of the country where peafowl run wild, according to Dennis Fett, who runs a sanctuary for the birds in Minden, Iowa.

Throughout history, these striking birds have been synonymous with exotic locales and wealth. During Alexander the Great’s triumphs in Asia, the spoils of victory included Indian peacocks--a prized treasure and gourmet delicacy in Greece during the 2nd century BC.

But over the past century in Arcadia, the birds have been transformed from a prosperous landowner’s status symbol into what some longtime residents feel is a plague upon their town.

Although the City Council considered trapping the birds in 1992, it decided instead to educate the public about inexpensive ways to repel them, leaving the final decision to individual homeowners.

Peafowl--the collective term for the peacock and peahen--were introduced to the San Gabriel Valley by Elias J. “Lucky” Baldwin, a gold miner who struck it rich and founded Arcadia. During his travels, he acquired six breeding pairs of Indian blue neck peafowl that he brought to the city in the early 1880s, Holmes said.

The birds ruled Baldwin’s estate, which later became part of the arboretum. But over the years, they became emboldened and started exploring neighborhoods across the city.

Holmes said the birds have lived in Arcadia long enough that they are an “introduced wild species”--the same classification as the pigeon and the starling--that neither the city nor the arboretum has any control over.

“Since they’ve established themselves as part of the landscape, they continue to successfully breed, and the population continues to grow,” he said.

Holmes said the arboretum often receives calls requesting peafowl removal, because many among the public mistakenly believe the peafowl belong to the nature facility.

“They fly,” said Steve McNall, executive director of the Pasadena Humane Society. “They know no boundaries.”

With wingspans of up to 6 feet, he added, “They look like B-29 bombers when they fly.”

Although coyotes, large dogs or, occasionally, an errant car sometimes kill peafowl, the birds can live up to 20 years in a stable environment, such as the arboretum.

A few hundred live on arboretum grounds, and Holmes said the birds are a prime attraction for visitors.

Only the male bird has the plumage the species is known for. During mating season, “the male will spread his fan out and make it rustle and do a little strut,” he said. “The female finds it irresistible.”

The peahen is a dark brown that acts as a camouflage as she nests.

Every year, the male sheds his fan after mating season and grows a new one. Although arboretum visitors are prohibited from removing the feathers from the grounds, some still do, Holmes said.

But some visitors pull the feathers directly out of the slow-moving birds, he added.

“Every now and then, we’ll see people with a handful of feathers and there’s blood at the end of the quills,” Holmes said. “On one occasion, we found a bird that had been killed. Someone took a knife to his train feathers after snapping the bird’s neck.”

Fett, who has been in Southern California several times to help cities and private citizens deal with peafowl, said La Canada residents sometimes trap chicks and send them to his farm because they fear for the safety of the birds.

The Pasadena Humane Society will rescue injured birds or trap peafowl if they are causing severe property damage, such as paint scratches on cars or broken roof tiles, McNall said.

But, he said, “our [main] approach is education.”

The Arcadia City Council considered trapping the birds in 1992, but public outrage forced it to instead publish “Our Neighbors the Peacocks,” a brochure that suggests ways to discourage the birds from invading property. Water hoses and certain plants repel peafowl. But food sources, such as compost heaps or pet food, are practically an open invitation, according to the brochure.

Holmes said he does not understand some residents’ disdain for the birds. “What other community can say it has peafowl wandering the streets?”

“There is a romantic, Renaissance sense of wealth,” he said. “You’d think it would be an enticement.”

Ruby Frenchick has seen the peafowl population grow during the 31 years she has lived in Arcadia.

“I love the peacocks,” she said. “I think they’re beautiful.”

Frenchick encourages the birds to nest on her property and cultivates plants, such as sweet stalks, that peafowl enjoy eating. One peahen nested within a few feet of her door this spring. “On Mother’s Day, 10 little ones came walking out,” Frenchick said.

Farida Sitabkhan and her husband, Abdul, need a little more distance.

“They climb on the roof and eat all the plants,” she said.

Abdul Sitabkhan said, “You can compare it to a deer problem. They’re pretty until they move into your backyard.”