Aussie council backflips on 'blunderous' decision that shocked city shoppers

Yahoo

23-04-2025

An Australian city council has backflipped on a 'blunderous' plan that resulted in hundreds of birds crashing into windows along its most popular shopping strip, leaving shoppers shocked.
Stores operated by Optus and Apple became inundated with tiny migratory tree martins after the City of Adelaide netted nearby trees to stop them roosting above cafes and restaurants, forcing the birds to relocate.
Yesterday's council meeting was dominated by the issue of the birds, with passionate councillors discussing their plan to address the problem for over 45 minutes. It followed an announcement by the mayor that four of the nine nets on busy Leigh Street would be removed on Wednesday. But five would remain in place to deter the birds from settling above businesses that have complained about their poo covering the street.
While wildlife rescuers have welcomed the council's announcement, frontline responders who have been collecting injured birds want it to go a step further. 'There's no point removing just some of the nets, we want them all gone,' rescuer Rachel Anderson told Yahoo News.
Every year, around 10,000 tree martins migrate to Adelaide from the Northern Territory, Indonesia and Papua New Guinea. And for a decade, they'd been settling in trees planted by council along Leigh Street.
After the trees were netted, the birds were left with little choice but to settle along busy Rundle Mall. When the birds began crashing into Apple's windows and flying into the Optus store, council adjusted lighting along the busy shopping strip. This dramatically reduced the number of birds becoming disorientated and crashing into windows.
The netting of the trees pleased cafe owners but outraged environmentalists, with the Australian Conservation Council saying people's amenity had been put above the welfare of the birds. "This is an ill-thought-out and blunderous decision by the City of Adelaide," it said.
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Now the city is working on finding a balance between human and wildlife needs, with councillor calling the bird's presence "amazingly exciting" at last night's meeting. "I didn't even know what a tree martin was before I joined this council," she said.
Another even suggested the tree martins could become a popular attraction. "In America... they had a problem with bats and turned that into a significant tourist destination," he said, referencing Austin, Texas.
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