Hundreds of birds living in poor conditions rescued from El Mirage home

EL MIRAGE, Ariz. - Hundreds of birds found living in poor conditions have been rescued from an El Mirage home.

El Mirage Police say they were called to the home last week after getting an anonymous tip that hundreds of birds were living there, but when officers arrived, they found the situation was much worse. 

A 'do not enter' sign is not in front of the home after more than 600 exotic birds were removed Halloween night. 

"I thought 200, to hear 600 that's pretty crazy," said a neighbor. "There were people in hazmat stuff going in."

The birds are lovebirds, known to be cute and chatty.

"They make a pretty sound but when you have 600 it can get overwhelming," said Jody Kieran with Fallen Feathers Rescue. 

The birds were not in cages but flying freely inside of the house. 

"There were nesting boxes all over the house encouraging them to breed," said Kieran. "Unfortunately, there wasn't any cleaning up that had been done for quite some time."

FOX 10 was told there were bird feces everywhere about 4-inches deep. The owner was feeding them bread. 

Neighbors said they could smell the home but only when the garage door was open. 

The birds are now contained in an air-conditioned trailer, quarantined and being tested for diseases. 

"It’s not optimal for them but them being in this whole situation, to begin with, wasn’t optimal for them, so we’re doing our best," said Kieran. "They're going to go ahead hopefully get some sort of bill of health to let us know which direction to go into."