An attempt to control a ''peacock infiltration'' in Coconut Grove is forcing Miami city officials to consider some dire solutions.

A memo sent Tuesday by the office of City Manager Pete Hernandez to city officials discusses the potential of quelling the exotic bird over-population problem by distributing a contraceptive used generally by West Coast cities to control pigeon populations.

The contraceptive, Ovocontrol-P, was created by a California company, Innolytics, and looks similar to cat food. It acts as a birth control measure when ingested daily, Innolytics CEO Erick Wolf said.

''This is more like regular birth control than it is a morning-after pill,'' he said, adding that the effects are reversible.

Birds that ingest Ovocontrol-P still lay eggs, but they do not hatch, he said.

The proposal has ruffled the feathers of peacock enthusiasts and puzzled at least one city commissioner who says the city has more important issues to tackle.

Miami began looking at methods of peafowl population control last August, after Commissioner Marc Sarnoff met with residents who say their Micanopy Avenue enclave has been overrun for years by the birds.

Neighbors, who estimate that about 40 peacocks and peahens frequent the street, have asked the city to step in. But with trapping the birds complicated by a county law protecting peafowl and the city's designation as a bird sanctuary, officials are considering distributing the bird contraceptive. Neighbors insist the matter is serious, as they are awakened nightly by the wailing call of the birds and at other times slip on the copious bird droppings. One resident told Sarnoff that doctors suspect the birds play a role in his 2-year-old son's recurring intestinal problems.

The idea of peafowl birth control, however, has irked Commissioner Tomás Regalado, who wonders if the city isn't overthinking the issue.

Regalado said he doesn't doubt the validity of residents' concerns, but he questioned why the city has paid $400 to conduct a North Grove peafowl count and doesn't just handle the birds through a service similar to Chicken Busters, which picks up roaming fowl throughout the city and sells them to farms.

''To me, it's so absurd,'' he said in a telephone interview. ``The stock market is collapsing. It's taking down the pension fund of the city. We can't sell the bonds, and we're focusing the resources of the city on the peacock population?''

Agreed, said Gary Hecht, a local activist who has been a spokesman for those who say the city should leave the peacocks alone.

''If Pete [Hernandez] wants to go down this track, he's going to have a whole heck of a lot of angry people in this town,'' Hecht said.

The city is considering other methods of population control, like hiring licensed trappers to humanely trap and relocate the birds.

Or ''another plausible solution,'' the Oct. 7 memo suggests, ``is the establishment of a Peafowl Adoption Program.''

Residents and farmers have already contacted the city to say they are willing to adopt the exotic birds.

Sidney Robinson, owner of the Sandy Acre Avocado Mango farm in Redland, said he wouldn't mind relocating the whole bevy to his property where he already feeds 20 or so each morning.

''They could certainly let them all here,'' he said. ``They'd learn to mingle with the rest of them here and wouldn't be a problem.''

And West Palm Beach resident Charlie O. Smith, who caught wind of the Micanopy problem from The New York Times, is among those who would like to provide a home for one of the displaced peafowl.

In a Sept. 23 e-mail sent to Sarnoff's office, Smith wrote that the neighborhood used to have a pair of peahens, but one disappeared a few months ago.

''The remaining peahen genuinely seems to need some companionship,'' he wrote. ``Her caws now go unheaded. It's just a downright sad situation.''

Miami Herald staff writer Michael Vasquez contributed to this report.

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