Some advocates for the homeless have complained that the red-tailed hawks evicted from their nest at a luxury co-op building on the Upper East Side are getting more attention than the thousands of homeless humans on the city’s streets.

Today, negotiations among demonstrating groups, officials from city and state environmental agencies, and the management company for the building at 927 Fifth Ave., Brown Harris Stevens Property Management, are to begin.

“We have been a bit surprised at the amount of attention these hawks have received,” Patrick Markee, senior policy analyst at Coalition for the Homeless, said. “We understand the public outpouring of sympathy for the birds, but when we see the word ‘homeless’ in news headlines on Page 1 or Page 2 it’s a bit frustrating to find out that the story is not about homeless people.”

“After all,” Mr. Markee said, “we have more homeless people in New York than any time since the Great Depression.”

As of December 9, there were 36,598 people living in shelters around the city, according to the Department of Homeless Services. Almost half of shelter residents, about 15,200, are under age 18, records show.

When comparing those statistics with the “tragic circumstances” facing the birds Pale Male and Lola and their offspring, especially during the holiday season, Mr. Markee said New York appears to be “less hospitable to our human neighbors.”

Another advocate for the homeless, Jennifer Flynn, director of the New York City AIDS Housing Network, said the “greedy” eviction of the Pale Male clan is analogous to attempts by those in higher-income brackets to push the homeless out of sight, and thus out of mind, while also looking to increase property values.

The high level of rents in the city and the thousands of New Yorkers evicted from their apartments each year also make the furor over the feathered exiles seem insignificant, according to a tenant activist, James Muessig. If anything, the movement to save Pale Male and Lola illustrates New Yorker’s appreciation for cute or interesting animals, Mr. Muessig said – and their disregard for people who can’t afford their rents.

Records of the city’s Rent Guidelines Board show 21,369 residents were evicted in New York in 2001, the last year for which the figure was immediately available.

“The interesting idea here is that animals seem to get more protection under the law than humans,” Mr. Muessig said. If a tenant with a pet is evicted, the tenant’s landlord is obligated by state law to find residence for the pet. The tenant, however, is left to his own devices.

“We imagine things, cute fuzzy things,” Mr. Muessig said of the support for animals. “We look into their eyes and see things that don’t exist.”

Outside the site of the hawks’ former nest, on the fifth day of rallies, nearly 100 demonstrators gathered across from the building carrying picket signs and chanting protest songs. The building’s residents include a prominent newscaster, Paula Zahn; a hugely successful investor, Bruce Wasserstein, and a celebrated actress, Mary Tyler Moore.

“No nest, no peace,” the demonstrators chanted.

“Whatever Lola wants, Lola gets,” read one sign.

“Honk-4-Hawks,” read another.

The horns blared in support of the birds from city buses and police cars and passers-by. The director of Audubon Society’s New York chapter, E.J. McAdams, said coverage of Hawkgate was warranted.

“The story of Pale Male is an inspiring one,” he said, in reference to the dozen years the hawk has continued to mate at 927 Fifth, producing 25 or so fledglings.

Another supporter, William Fowler, dressed in a scarf and sipping coffee, agreed. “The federal government has the bald eagle,” he said. “We have Pale Male.”

Meanwhile, from noon to 5 p.m., two middle-aged women wearing beak-to-feet cardinal costumes pranced in the street during the changing of traffic lights, rallying chants and confusing Spandex-clad joggers.

“This fight is to show that real wildlife can exist in our city,” one of the cardinals, Rebekah Chreshkoff, of the Upper West Side, said.

The traffic light then turned red. “Oops … I’m up! Gotta go!” she said, and began to flap her wings.