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Twinbrook residents say they are getting tired of the tiny feathered alarm clock that has made its way into their neighborhood.

About three weeks ago, a rooster began appearing in the yards of residents on Gilbert Road, said Gisele LaRochelle, who lives along the road.

She has seen the bird wandering behind her house and in the backyards of two neighbors, eating her plants and whatever else it can find.

"It's cute and humorous and a little annoying at the same time," LaRochelle said.

The feathered fiend typically begins crowing around 5 a.m. and stops between 7 and 7:30 a.m.

Neighbors have called Rockville City Police Department's Neighborhood Services Division, which handles animal-related disturbances, but so far the bird has managed to evade capture.

Neighborhood Services Officer Patrick Colburn said the disturbance was first reported on July 15 and his co-workers have been out to the neighborhood at least a dozen times trying to nab the rooster.

"This one is very hard to catch and our officers have tried very hard to do so," he said, adding that roosters are "very fast and they can fly."

Colburn said officers think the bird was set loose in the neighborhood because no one has come forward to claim it. But Colburn is confident the creature will be caught soon.

"This rooster is too smart for its own good, but we will eventually wear it down and it will be caught," he said.

Once it is, Colburn said the rooster's owner has five days to claim him from the date he was captured. After that, the animal falls under Montgomery County Animal Control's jurisdiction and the owner then has five more days to claim the bird, he said.

If no one comes forward, the city will work with the Montgomery County Humane Society to place the rooster at a farm, Colburn said.

Rockville City Code states that roosters are considered livestock and are illegal in the city, he said. First-time offenders are given a warning, but there is a $50 fine if the same violation occurs again within a 12-month period.

This is not the first time a rooster has set up shop in Twinbrook. In spring of last year, another bird found itself in police custody after it was cornered and caught by a teenager.

Colburn said roosters are not a common sight in the city. He has worked in the division for 10 years and said renegade roosters have only been reported three times.

He said most animals his section runs across are native wildlife. He once saw a goat that had made its way from Potomac to Rockville and a boa constrictor that had escaped from its cage.

"The one thing I'm grateful for is that we've never had a skunk call because they will spray you," Colburn said.