Heidi Fleiss Plans Legal Fight Over Exotic Birds at New Las Vegas Property

Heidi Fleiss, who spent roughly 15 years in Pahrump before closing on an $850,000 property in the southeast Las Vegas valley in mid-February, says she will take Clark County to court over regulations that could prevent her from housing and releasing some 30 large exotic birds outdoors at her new home.

The dispute surfaced after a neighbor identified as Cordova filed a noise complaint with Clark County code enforcement over the birds. Cordova told reporters she believes Fleiss could be limited to keeping 20 birds under county code and may face additional outdoor restrictions because the neighborhood sits in a designated "bird strike hazard area" near Reid Airport. "She is going to be very upset when she finds out what the county has to tell her," Cordova said.

Fleiss is not backing down. She told 8 News Now she plans to enlist her legal team and present a fact-based argument against the regulations to Clark County officials. "It's calling awareness to this very important cause of the cruelty and inhumane rules and stuff that's old thinking, that's no longer applicable, that's not in this day and age, should never ever exist," Fleiss said. "And they need to change." She added: "This may be unpopular, but it's a fight. And I will fight for them till I die."

Fleiss chose the quarter-acre property specifically for its tall trees and lush greenery. By last Friday she had four macaws, Roscoe, Charlie, Gin, and Juice, already loose in her backyard. She said she initially expected the birds to follow her back to Pahrump after a brief visit. "They would not come back because they loved it here. It's beautiful here," she said.

The planned move of approximately 30 birds from Pahrump to Las Vegas comes after years of turbulence surrounding her collection in Nye County. She told the Pahrump Valley Times that someone shot one of her pet parrots with a pellet gun just before Christmas, and she contacted Nye County Animal Control and kept the pellet that a veterinarian removed from the bird's leg as evidence. She offered up to $5,000 for information leading to the shooter's arrest. In 2022 she also pursued a custodial dispute against Brandi McClain, a woman she said once worked for her, over a separate group of four macaws.

Despite the tensions with her new neighbors, Fleiss said she wants a civil resolution. "I would like to talk to my neighbors," she said, adding she would "do whatever I can to appease them." She also confirmed she is working with Netflix on a documentary about herself.

The legal challenge will put Clark County's bird-keeping ordinances, and the question of whether free-flight keeping of large parrots is permissible near a major airport, at the center of a dispute that began, for Fleiss, with a move away from the Pahrump valley she called home for a decade and a half.