BEAUTIFUL PESTS: Peacocks like to hang out by Nita Peterson’s front door in Dannemora. She once planted a row of daffodils. ‘‘And the peacocks came along and they nipped off the lot.’’

A pride of pesky peafowl is overstaying its welcome at a reserve in East Tamaki, Auckland, by digging up gardens, displacing roof tiles, defecating on paths, crowing outside windows and parading on roads.

The 12 large birds roost at the top of pine trees in Logan Carr Reserve each night and during the day they wreak havoc in the neighbouring suburb of Dannemora.

Nita Peterson owns a property bordering the reserve and it is a favourite peacock hangout.

The 69-year-old said she used to love the majestic creatures but the numbers were not kept under control. Currently there were about four peacocks and eight peahens.

"Quite frankly I think the time has come for them all to go," she said.

"If a lot of those birds have chicks, then we will be inundated with them."

Two of her neighbours, Bob Tolra and Valerie Oughton, took their complaint to the Howick Local Board this month.

They brought a tin can of excrement to show board members the scale of the problem. Tolra said no cleaning product can get its stain out of concrete.

The 71-year-old said he was one of the first to move into Glencullen Place in 1995 after the area was subdivided. The peafowl came from the original farm.

Over the years he has stuck up for the birds "against a lot of people" but the last time any were taken away was about six years ago.

"It would be better now if they go into a place where they have plenty of room to move around and they can forage as much as they like."

Tolra said many people loved the peacocks, so the former Manukau City Council agreed to keep numbers to four - one male and three females.

A manager at Auckland Council, Malcolm Page, said the current administration did not have a policy on peacocks and peahens but was guided by bylaws and commonsense.

A survey will be dropped in letterboxes this week, he said.

"We will quickly analyse feedback and propose solutions to the local board."

Polls over the past five years have found resident opinion evenly split.

Page said for every person who disliked the birds, there was another resident who was happy to have them there.

"Our approach will be determined by community feedback, best practice and the best solution for the birds."

Peterson said the birds liked to hang out by her front door and often nested in a bush there to raise their chicks.

Her two birman cats were too scared to enter the house and had to wait for the peafowl to move. If she has to chase a bird away she uses a water pistol.

"I'd never hurt them," she said.

"They should be living on a farm or somewhere like that."

Page said if the birds were moved there was no guarantee they would stay at their new home.

"Peafowl are territorial birds so any new homes would need to be far enough away from Dannemora that they wouldn't attempt to return," he said.