Rome scares off its starlings

Each winter, millions of birds arrive in Italy from northern Europe. They come for the warmer temperatures.

People in Rome can't help watching them in the sky. Eva Osuna is visiting from Spain.

Eva Osuna: "It's beautiful, it's very beautiful. It's the first time I've seen it. I had heard about it, but it's the first time I've seen it."

These birds, starlings, are fantastic to look at, but they make a terrible mess. The starlings rest in the city trees. The pavements below get covered with dirt and smell unpleasant. On dry days, people often carry umbrellas - to keep themselves clean.

City authorities have asked environmental organisation Fauna Urbis for help. It uses sounds and lights to split up the birds. Valentina De Tommaso is one of the workers in the group.

Valentina De Tommaso: "We act on their fear reflex, by using their own alarm call so that they move to less populated places. Because their presence on the trees makes cars dirty, the ground dirty, disturbs passers-by, not to mention the noise that they make."

The noise the workers create isn't bad for the birds. It just lets the starlings know the area's unsafe, and so they move on.

But the task's a challenge. This year, the starling population in Rome is around one million.

People have different opinions about them, like local engineer Francesco Fusco.

Francesco Fusco: "Walking under a tree where there are starlings is not ideal, and it can cause problems. But indeed, if the city is a reference point for these birds, because it is a stop on their migration route, then they have the right to stop here."

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