Gary and Julie Scheer received a shock as they opened the door to their Pulpit Rock neighborhood home on a recent Sunday morning.

“I went out to get my paper and found a peacock sitting in a flower bed by the front door,” Julie said.

That’s right. An ornamental bird, native to Asia, had taken up residence in their cul-de-sac.

“It’s big with an iridescent blue head and body and a lime green tail,” Gary said. “In the sunlight, it is beautiful.”

Their neighbors shared their amazement as they got a glimpse of the bird, which measures about 5 feet in length from its small, black, white and blue head to its spectacular tail feathers.

“Everyone in the cul-de-sac took pictures and oohhed and aahhed over it,” Julie said.

Folks in the Pikes Peak region are accustomed to wildlife roaming about. Bears, mountain lions, bobcats, coyotes, deer and fox are common in the foothills and around open spaces like in Pulpit Rock.

But the peacock is a much different critter.

“Everyone was fascinated,” Julie said.

Fascination, however, quickly turned to frustration when the exotic bird took up residence and started eating everything in sight.

“We have all found him in our gardens munching on whatever interested him,” Julie said. “He was making a mess of our gardens.”

So she and Gary began researching peacocks and learned they can be the scourge of landscaping and car paint. Gary said Internet reports warned that peacock claws can create deep scratches on the paint if they decide to use a car as a makeshift roost.

Neighbors became particularly upset with the colorful newcomer and its late-night habits.

“He woke everyone with his scream from the top of our roof on Sunday morning at 4 a.m.,” Julie said. “He generally has worn out his welcome.”

Gary called around trying to find its owner.

“I called the Cheyenne Mountain Zoo and they asked if it had a band on its leg,” Gary said. “I said no. They said it wasn’t one of their peacocks and they didn’t want to add it to their collection.”

He called the nearby University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, wondering if it might be missing a peacock. No luck.

So he called Colorado Parks and Wildlife. But spokeswoman Abbie Walls said her agency only handles wildlife, not escaped, exotic pets. She referred Gary to the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region, which agreed to take the peacock with one catch: It needed to be trapped or captured.

“They are super-hard to catch,” said Humane Society spokeswoman Katie McDevitt, noting that peacocks are illegal in the city limits, although peahens fall under the same rules that permit chickens.

In fact, when I approached the peacock on Saturday to take photos and video, it proved elusive. It immediately started trotting away, ducking behind a car and around bushes to dodge me.

McDevitt said it’s important that no one chase the peacock, especially in hot weather, because it can get stressed and die.

Her best advice for neighbors was to lure the peacock into a garage and shut the door, trapping it until animal control officers can arrive.

Gary said zoo officials advised neighbors not to feed it, and it may migrate back to its home – wherever that is.

“We’re worried about its safety,” Gary said. “We have coyotes in Pulpit Rock Park.”

And they are worried about expensive rose bushes and landscaping.

“We don’t think we need a peacock in our cul-de-sac,” Gary said.

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A peacock grazes in a yard in the Pulpit Rock neighborhood of Colorado Springs near Interstate 25 and Woodmen Road in this June 20, 2015 photo. Neighbors were surprised when the peacock suddenly showed up recently and want it to leave because it eats their landscaping and make a hideous mating call at night. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette

Bill Vogrin – Side Streets

A peacock grazes in a yard in the Pulpit Rock neighborhood of Colorado Springs near Interstate 25 and Woodmen Road in this undated photo. Neighbors were surprised when the peacock suddenly showed up recently and want it to leave because it eats their landscaping and make a hideous mating call at night. Courtesy photo.

A peacock grazes in a yard in the Pulpit Rock neighborhood of Colorado Springs near Interstate 25 and Woodmen Road in this undated photo. Neighbors were surprised when the peacock suddenly showed up recently and want it to leave because it eats their landscaping and make a hideous mating call at night. Courtesy photo.