For months now, the skies over the quiet West Flemish province of Helkijn have been like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock's film 'The Birds".
"They attacked my dog," says restaurateur Sylvie Alvoet to Het Laatste Nieuws, recalling how her labrador was dive-bombed in the garden. "And they pooped on his head." Her neighbour, Luc Baelde, added. "They're also capable of shredding pipes by pecking away on rubber."
Flocks of jackdaws have taken the village by storm. They hover over the St. John the Baptist church spire, located in the centre of the town of Helkijn, before swooping down to the poplars, roofs and roads.
Fairly loud and delightfully brainy, they damage insulation from rooftops, tear at solar panels by pecking through the cables, and bombard tiles with chestnuts in an intelligent, effective method of cracking shells.
Mayor Mathias Goos has already fielded a small avalanche of insurance claims. "Every year there are more," he tells The Brussels Times. "The damage is real. They fly up to sixty meters into the air and deliberately drop walnuts and chestnuts on the roofs of houses," he adds.
The jackdaws are undeterred, sometimes returning in greater numbers after being previously repelled. "Hunters tell us the only way is to shoot one," resident Luc Baelde told Het Laatste Nieuws. "The rest will leave. But they’re protected species, so we can't."
"Jackdaws are intelligent, social, opportunistic," says Jeroen Denaeghel, the spokesperson of Natuur & Bos (Nature and Forests) Agency to The Brussels Times."They can cause nuisance, yes. But they're not aggressive. They defend their young, like any bird."
The bird population have been increasing across Flanders since 2007, due to milder winters and abundant food sources, as well as urban environments offering nesting sites.
In 2025, a total of 10 reports related to jackdaws were received for the whole of Flanders. In 6 cases, the reports concerned agricultural damage, while 4 cases involved damage to buildings, according to Natuur & Bos. Half of the 10 reports originated from West Flanders. Not a single report came from Helkijn.
Denaeghel proposes alternatives, including altering buildings to block nests, deploying birds of prey, and even using lasers to disturb their flight paths. Culling, he stresses, is out of the question.
An exemption can only be granted in cases of "demonstrable damage to professionally cultivated crops."
Yet the mayor wants another exemption. "The nuisance is too great," Goos says. "If nothing changes, sooner or later someone will be hurt."
