In winter, the sky is covered with thousands of starlings. But when they stop in the trees, the streets and cars are covered in their droppings. Every year, the authorities have to scare them away.
As the sun sets in Rome, five figures in white move in the trees. They carry loudspeakers that emit high-pitched screeches and the birds take flight.
Valentina De Tommaso, an employee at Fauna Urbis, explains: “we act on their fear reflex by using their own alarm call, so they move to less populated places, because their presence in the trees dirty cars and pavements and annoys people. pedestrians, not to mention the noise they make.
Climate change has shortened your stay in Italy
Every year, between October and February, millions of starlings migrate from northern Europe to Italy looking for a warmer place to spend the winter.
These birds, which measure 20 centimeters, spend the day looking for food in rural areas and return to the city to sleep, creating collective dormitories in the trees.
Climate change has shortened his stay in Italy. This year there could be between 500,000 and a million copies in Rome.
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