FREE-SPIRITED PEACOCK HAS NEIGHBORS SQUAWKING : RESIDENTS WANT ROAMING BIRD TO MOVE ON.

Byline: Eric Leach Daily News Staff Writer

A roaming peacock has split a neighborhood where some people love the beautiful bird and others complain that its distinctive squawking keeps them awake.

``It's been here almost two months,'' said one neighbor, Donig Krikorian, who lives on Ingomar Street near Melvin Avenue. ``Every day - oh my God - early in the morning it starts making noise. We can't sleep any more. I can't explain it. It's like a loud rooster. Everybody hears it, for two or three streets. Everybody is complaining.''

Los Angeles city officials say there is nothing they can do.

``We are not going to get involved in what appears to be a neighborhood dispute,'' said Eric Rose, the district director for Los Angeles City Councilwoman Laura Chick's office. ``It has posed no danger or problem to the community at large. It's a wild peacock. We don't trap squirrels.''

An official with the Los Angeles city Department of Animal Services said some people enjoy having the peacock in the area and provide food for it as it flies from home to home.

``We can't go out there and shoot it out of the air,'' said the official, who refused to be identified. ``Some people love it. But I can't blame the ones who complain. It is very loud. It makes a real obnoxious noise.''

``If we knew who owned it, we would go to them and give them written and verbal warnings to remove it or keep it 100 feet from the neighbors. But nobody will claim ownership,'' he said. ``We gave one neighbor a trap with some food in it. But it's not going near the trap.''

Rose said the bird roams at will.

``The peacock literally moves from neighborhood to neighborhood. From reports we have here, we've been able to establish that it does not belong to any particular resident,'' Rose said. ``I've gone out to the area and watched it go over several fences. It's a beautiful peacock.''

Martin Alpert, who lives on Ingomar Street, said he and his neighbors wish something could be done to get rid of the bird.

``It's very annoying,'' he said. ``I hear it all night long. Every one of my neighbors hates hearing it. The Pharaohs in Egypt used to use peacocks like watch dogs. Any disturbance and they squawk. It's a high screech - very loud.

``I don't want them to kill the bird,'' he said, ``but if it doesn't belong to anyone, the city officials should take it to an animal shelter.''

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PHOTO A wild peacock roams neighborhoods in Reseda, annoying some residents with its high screech.