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Think of it as a hint.

Or maybe a friendly nudge.

Naples officials, though, are hoping the family of Cooper’s hawks living in a downtown Naples tree don’t see the city’s decision to put up a construction fence as a landscaping upgrade.

Naples City Manager Bill Moss said Monday the city plans to move forward with construction on a nearly $9 million parking garage at Sixth Avenue South and Eighth Street South. The birds, which still were perched above the lot Monday morning, were expected to abandon the nest by now.

“While we have enjoyed the company of the hawks, it is time for them to find a new neighborhood, even if it is across the street,” Moss said in an e-mail sent to Naples City Council on Monday. “Work on the parking garage must begin.”

The contractor will begin “construction activity” on Wednesday with the installation of a perimeter fence. Once the fence is installed, Moss said contractors will begin clearing and grading the lot.

Work on the project came to a standstill in April when the birds and their nest were first spotted. Officials were concerned that construction activity would have forced the birds to abandon the nest, thus violating the Federal Migratory Bird Treaty.

That violation carries a fine of up to $5,000 and up to a year in jail.

Ken Warren, a spokesman for the South Florida office of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said the treaty states that birds can’t be moved or transported for any reason, even construction.

But Natural Resources Manager Mike Bauer said he was comfortable with the city moving forward with this step.

“Maybe they’ll take the hint,” Bauer said.

The birds haven’t been sitting idle in their tree. Bauer said they’ve been flying from tree to tree, and have even been spotted hopping around the parking lot.

In his e-mail to council, Moss said “the last of the hawk chicks have been out of the nest for a week or more.”

The birds, Moss went on to say, “continue to hang out in the parking lot during their idle time” and the fledglings appear to be “adept at flying.”

Moss also said it appears only remnants of the nest remain, and the fledglings are larger than the smaller adult bird.

Councilwoman Penny Taylor said she hopes the city treads carefully in this first phase of construction.

“I would be very cautious about how to proceed,” she said. “If the birds are still in the nest, the birds are still in the nest.”

Birds are considered to be in the nest, Warren said, until they fly away on their own.

“My understanding is once they have flown away, or left the nest on their own, they’re good to go,” Warren said. “They’re not looking to come back.”

Officials had hoped that the garage would be complete by the end of the year, before the 2009 tourist season. But with construction on hold for several months, Moss told council members he was unsure if the contractor “will make up sufficient time to complete construction by the end of the year.”

The project should take six months from start to finish.