It has all the rich intensity of a comic segue from one of Quentin Tarantino's own movies, complete with theatrical language and healthy portions of indignation. The Oscar-winning film-maker is suing a fellow Academy Award winner, the website TMZ reports, for keeping exotic birds that, according to Tarantino's lawsuit, emit "obnoxious pterodactyl-like screams" which stop him from being able to work.

In the suit, filed yesterday at LA county superior court, Tarantino takes to task neighbour Alan Ball, writer of American Beauty, for failing to control his pet macaws, described as "a large variety of wild parrot known for [their] intolerably loud screech and for behaving badly in captivity". If the Pulp Fiction director has been struggling to put pen to paper after such outrageous interruptions, he appears to have found it no great strain to outline the destructive effect of the demon birds' "blood-curdling screams" on his own peace of mind.

"Commencing in or about late 2009, on a daily basis, Tarantino began hearing ear-splitting shrieks and screams emanating from defendant's property," says the suit. "Plaintiffs determined that the source of the noise was defendant's exotic birds.

"The noise created constitutes a nuisance within the meaning of the California civil code section 3479, in that the exotic birds' squawking, which occurs daily and continues over a span of seven or eight hours each day, is injurious to Tarantino's health and offensive to his senses such that it obstructs Tarantino's free use of his property and interferes with his comfortable enjoyment of life."

In the suit, Tarantino also says he has complained regularly to Ball, who eventually promised to house the birds in a sound-proofed aviary. In the meantime, the animals would be kept inside. However, the film-maker alleges that the birds have often been allowed out, and the arrival of the aviary has done little to dampen their squawks.

Tarantino, whose next film looks likely to have a western theme, is asking the court to issue an injunction against Ball ordering him to halt the birds' noise, and also asks that his costs be paid by the defendant.