Aussie town tries fake snakes to send birds flying

SYDNEY (Reuters Life!) - After trying everything from strobe lights to water jets, an Australian town has resorted to plastic snakes in a bid to end an aviary invasion.

The New South Wales town of Tamworth has been plagued for years by thousands of noisy starlings that litter the place with their droppings and cause a nuisance to residents.

The town has so far tried blasting the birds out of trees with water cannons, scaring them off with strobe lights and sounds, and even capturing them in nets, but with no luck.

Now locals are draping a hundred plastic snakes on the trees.

"A gentleman came into the building the other day to actually donate a snake to us. He figured we'd probably need as many as we could get," council worker Steve Gribbins told Network Ten television.

The council hopes the snakes will do the trick, but naturalists said the birds were smarter than humans though.

"They'll figure out, hang on a sec, those snakes don't move. That snake is in the same spot as last night. I'll just get over here a bit," said naturalist John Dengate.