City of Bowling Green brings in USDA to scare off birds

BOWLING GREEN, Ky.- New Years Eve is still two weeks away, but don’t be alarmed if you hear what sounds like fireworks Monday night in Bowling Green.

The city is using pyrotechnics to scare off thousands of birds in the Crossridge neighborhood. Neighbors have expressed concerns over the animals and their droppings.

Most of the birds are starlings.

Starting at dusk Monday evening, wildlife biologists with the United States Department of Agriculture will be setting off pyrotechnics in the Crossridge neighborhood in an effort to disrupt the birds roosting location.

The pyrotechnics will be used 30 minutes before dark and will continue 30-45 minutes after dark. Residents in the neighborhood were sent postcards alerting them of what’s going to take place.

The pyrotechnics will be fired off at least for the next week.

“We hope that if the birds choose to roost elsewhere, the Crossridge neighborhood will be satisfied,” said Bowling Green Mayor, Bruce Wilkerson. “The key part is figuring out where they will go next. They don’t have a particular leader where we can say, ‘go roost in Tennessee somewhere.’ We will have to work on it the best we can, as they continue to move around the neighborhoods.”

In the past, the city used audio of a screeching hawk to try and remove birds from the Bent Tree neighborhood.