Twin Falls, Idaho, is going to the birds

TWIN FALLS, Idaho – Every evening, Twin Falls’ downtown relives its own version of Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds.”

Thousands of crows descend upon the city, turning tree limbs into black balls and sidewalks into messy gauntlets.

Susan Bench, who works at Magic Valley Bank, said getting to her car after work is an adventure.

“I was standing under the awning last night waiting to run to my car, and I could hear the bird splats,” she said.

Businesses have been coping with the invasion for nearly a month, and now local agencies are taking up the fight. Meanwhile, longtime residents say they’ve never seen anything quite like this.

Ernie Bengoechea, who has spent almost 30 years at Magic Valley Bank, hired a young man to stand behind the bank every evening and make noises to scare off the birds. Other merchants are helping by whistling, clapping their hands, blowing horns and setting off car alarms.

The city street department is working to wash the mess from the sidewalks and pavement, but the winter weather is posing a challenge, said supervisor Bob Hildreth.

“You have to wait until it quits freezing,” Hildreth said.

Otherwise, officials said, the droppings turn to powder when crushed by cars or feet, forcing inmate cleanup crews from the Twin Falls County Sheriff’s Department to wear face masks while they scrape and scrub.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is also trying to evict the birds, using laser devices to try to scare the crows away. But so far, the crows are only being bumped from one block to the next, said downtown business district director Karla Williams.

For now the city will stick to humane means, she said.

“Well, you can’t discharge firearms in the city,” Williams said. “We’re using more politically correct ways to get rid of them, but it’ll take a while. They are just going to go on around the blocks.”