Micanopy Street residents said the noises made by the birds sound like a human being attacked and the peacocks have been using $60,000 cars as toilets, The New York Times reported Friday.

However, city officials said Miami has declared itself a bird sanctuary, making it illegal to kill or trap the peacocks and peahens.

"My primary concern is the peacocks," said Marc Sarnoff, a city commissioner from the Coconut Grove neighborhood. "I want to make that very clear."

He told the Times the birds are part of the neighborhood's bohemian culture, a living embodiment of "what the Grove is all about."

Residents said they had no problem with the peacocks a few years ago when their numbers were lower but the approximately 35 territorial birds now living in the neighborhood have become a public nuisance.

One resident, retired schoolteacher Patricia Ensign, has raised the ire of some neighbors by feeding the peacocks bowls of seed. She told the Times the measure was primarily "in self defense" to keep the birds from going after her cats' food.